Jg Sj fl ^t ff ggffi^ 



QkMtX^QIjWfOCtC 









JBBHfiB9&3Sfi 

SwiPEi wiPBiiiWBgroa 

^jwyrrr ;?■ ■yip rMfflffly ft 




Glass. 
Book. 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD ; 



THE HUMAN SOUL 



ITS MIGRATIONS AND ITS TRANSMIGRATIONS. 



^txintb bg i\t ^QMxmmx. 



11 1 have stolen the golden keys of the Egyptians ; I will indulge m> sacred 
fury."— Kepler. 

" What is here written is truth, therefore it cannot die."— Fob. 

11 1 have found it I This night have I read the Mystic Scroll. The Grand Secret 
of the Age stands revealed. It is mine ! Alone I delved for it, alone I have found 
it ! Now let the world laugh ! I am immortal !"— -P. B. Randolph. 



UTICA, N. Y. : 

PUBLISHED BY M. J. RANDOLPH. 

1861-'62. 



t£ 



^ 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1861, 

By ALEXANDER BRADY, 

In the Clek's office of the District Court of the United States for the District of 

Massachusetts. 



DEDICATION. 



TO MY FAR OFF AND BEST BELOVED FRIEND, BY WHOSE ROYAL BOUNTY 
I AM ENABLED TO BRING THIS BOOK BEFORE THE WORLD J AND TO ALL WHO 
FEEL AND LDIEWISE THINK J AND TO ATT, WHO HAVE SUFFERED ON THEER 
WAY THROUGH THIS WORLD AS I HAVE, THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED BY 

THE SON OF FLORA. 



PREFACE. 



Some men are daily dying ; some die ere they have 
learned how to live ; and some find their truest account 
in revealing the mysteries of both life and, death, — even 
while they themselves perish^in the act of revelation, 
as is most wonderfully done in the remarkable volume 
now before the reader, — as, alas ! almost seems to be J 
the case with the penman of what herein follows. 

The criterion of the value of a man or woman is the 
kind and amount of good they do or have done. The 
standard whereby to judge a thinker, con^sts in the 
mental treasures which during life they heap up for the 
use and benefit of the age that is, and those which are 
to be, when the fitful fever of their own sorrowful lives 
shall be ended, and they have passed away to begin in 
stern reality their dealings with the dead. He or she 
who adds even one new thought to the age becomes 
that age's great benefactor, to whom in future times 
grateful men shall erect monuments and statues. Well, 
here follows the work of a man, for his hand penned 



4 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

every line, and the ideas were born of his soul, not- 
withstanding his own disclaimer, for not every one can 
understand the mystical Blending by means of which he 
claims to have reached the ultima thule of human know- 
ledge, and most readers, while reveling in the delights 
whereof so rich a store is laid before them, will insist 
that these glories were begotten of his own soul. Be that 
as it may, however, here is one, who, measured by the 
standard of tffe world itself, merits a mpnument stronger 
than iron, more endurable than granite, the gratitude of 
every soul that sighs for immortality ; for not a single 
new thought', but whole platoons of them, grand and mag- 
nificent, hath he here presented, a deathless legacy to 
the world ; and bye-and-bye these thoughts of i Cynthia/ 
these ' Dealings with the Dead/ will become a beacon 
on the Highway of Thought, and be remembered to the 
everlasting glory of the sufferer who penned them. 
Rest, Paschal, rest, my brother ; thou brother and lover 
of thy race, for thy work is well done ; thy thoughts 
can never die. The bad will hate, but all who love 
Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, will bless thee, and crown 
thy name with fadeless laurels. G. D. S. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Dear Reader, your humble servant here presents 
you with a somewhat curious, novel, yet suggestive and 
thought-provoking work. So far as mere language is 
concerned, it might have been sent forth upon its travels 
up and down the world, clad in better raiment ; but as 
I had nothing better than linsey-woolsey whereof to 
fashion its apparel, why, it must e'en take its chance in 
that. 

A man ? s coat amounts to but little at the best, com- 
pared to the man inside it, — and so of books. It is not 
always your gilt-edged annual that either carries the 
most precious freight, or does the most good in the 
world ; hence so far as the verbal clothing of my pre- 
cious babe, this child of my soul is concerned, so far 
as relates to the terms wherein that here offered is 
couched, nothing need be said apologetically. If the 
dress suits, well and good ; if not, it is even well ; — the 
writer has done the very best that could be done, no 
one can do more. In making the assertions, the weird 
and strange revealments contained within the lids of 
this book, no one can be better aware of the risk en- 
countered of being laughed at by the wise people of 
this wise age, than I am. Doubtless there are those 
who will cavil, deride, sneer at and condemn the author 
and the work : but what of that ? My truths, if truths 
indeed they be, and to me, they are intensly such, will 
live. Why ? Eecause they were chipped off the Rock 
of Truth itself, and therefore will unquestionably sur- 



6 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

vive many a laugh, as have other truths ere now. They 
and their discoverer can well afford being laughed at. 
The author feels that when the great Reaper, Death, 
shall have done his work, these same truth-seeds will 
spring up into Form, Life, and Beauty : — all for the 
gladdening of the people : — and this feeling, this inner 
prophecy of and to the soul, contents and satisfies the 
being. Friendly reader, when this body shall have 
gone back to the dust whence it sprung in the hopeful 
years gone by ; when this soul shall be nestling in the 
bosom of its Saviour and his God, people who then 
shall read these pages will find, if not before, more in 
that which the heart-weary one has here written, than 
either a psychological romance, or the daring specula- 
tions of undisciplined genius. 

The foregoing observations have reference more es- 
pecially to the first part of this work, which is pre- 
sented in the form of Revelations from the Dead. It 
does not owe its origin to what is ordinarily known 
as " Spiritualism" : — it did not come either by the 
" Raps," " Tips," " Table-turning," "Speaking medium- 
ship," " Writing," or in any other of the modes so 
commonly claimed for the mass of " Spiritual" litera- 
ture, now so widely circulated and read. The pro- 
cess by which what follows came, is to me as weirdly 
strange and novel, as anything can well be. I call this 
process The Blending. 

The people called " Mediums," a singular order among 
men, set forth that their bodies are, for the time being, 
vacated by their souls, and that during the vacation, the 
soul of some one else, one who has died, and yet lives, 
takes possession of the physical structure, and then pro- 
ceeds to give forth his or her wisdom or folly for the 
enlightenment or darkening of men's minds. Another 
class tell us that they are " impressed" by a departed 
one to give voice to the Spirit's thought ; others declare 
that they are " obsessed." Well, it may all be so, or it 
may not. I do not assume or presume to decide one way 



DEALINGS WITH THE BEAD. 7 

or the other : all that need be said on this point is, that 
this book does not owe its origin to either or any of 
these methods. 

Machiavelli, the great Italian diplomat, is said to 
have gained a thorough and complete knowledge and 
insight of the state, frame of mind, and intentions of 
other men, through a wonderful power which he, above 
most, if not all men, possessed, of completely identify- 
ing himself by an intense desire and volition, with those 
with whom he came in contact. To such an extent and 
degree did he possess this power, that it was an easy 
task to circumvent and overreach most, if not all his 
diplomatic opponents. He placed himself by a mental 
effort, and physical as well, in the exact position occu- 
pied for the time being by his antagonists, or the person 
he designed to read. 

No matter what the mood indicated by the physical 
appearance, or the outward manifestation of what was 
going on within, away down in the deeps of being, was, 
he immediately moulded his features by the model thus 
furnished. " I am now in his place," said he, mentally, 
" and will see how to act, think and feel from his posi- 
tion ; and, for the time being, I sink my own personality, 
my opinions, views, — in short all my self-hood, preju- 
dices, likes, dislikes, and all else beside ; — in a word, I 
transmute Machiavelli into the other man : — which 
being effected, I shall be, to all intents and purposes, 
that other man for the time being, and of course will 
feel as he feels, see as he sees, know as he knows, and be 
impelled to action by the identical motives whereby he 
is prompted. 

All the world knows that Machiavelli succeeded to 
a wonderful extent ; and by this power of assumption, 
this easy, yet mysterious blending, he often, in fact, 
nearly always, baffled his foes, and the foes of the State, 
so that now a successful diplomatist is said to be pur- 
suing the Machiavellian policy. 

Almost any person can make successful experiments 



8 DEALINGS WITH THE BEAD. 

in this — Science, shall I call it ? — and will be surprised 
at the results. A man or woman appears before you 
with features bearing the impress of a certain kind of 
thought — and you can find out what kind by placing 
your own features, so far as possible, in the same 
shape ; keep them thus for several minutes, and you 
will become absorbed in the same that absorbs the 
individual before you, and in a short time will become 
an adept in the art of Soul-reading. 

Many men, and a still greater number of women, who 
possessed the power alluded to, have existed in all 
times past j but, above all others, the age we live in 
has been prolific of such — so that now it is not at all 
difficult to find those who will enter at will, almost, the 
very abysses, labyrinths, and most secret recesses of 
your being. Indeed, persons abound in nearly all the 
great cities of the world who attain high honor and re- 
nown — to say nothing of the benefits of competence, 
and ' even wealth — by the exercise of this marvellous 
faculty. 

There are many wise ones who admit the existence 
of this power, yet deny its attainability by the many, and 
who stoutly maintain that it is a special gift of the 
Creator to a favored few. Against such a verdict the 
writer begs leave most respectfully to protest ; and 
these are the grounds upon which that protest is based : 
\ All human powers and faculties are latent, until time, 
circumstance, and discipline bring them out. \ All 
human beings are created alike in so iar forth as the 
germinal powers are concerned. All men naturally 
love sweet sounds, and, if this taste be cultivated at an 
early day, are capable of musical appreciation, if not 
of vocal or instrumental execution. The seeds of all 
unfolding lie 'perdu, or latent, in every human being ; 
they are the property of Soul ; in Soul-soil they are 
imbedded, and from that soil they must eventually put 
forth the shoot, the shrub, the tree, the branch, leaf, 
blossom, and finally the fruit. 'Every faculty, strictly 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 9 

human, belongs to, and is a part of, every member of 
the species ; and that — this fact being admitted, though 
any given one or more may be manifested most power- 
fully by some, and not at all by others — all of them are 
one day to be developed, called out, unfolded, in all, 
is a plain inference ; nay, an absolute certainty.\ The 
power to see without eyes, demonstrated by scores and 
hundreds of clairvoyants, is not a gift peculiar to a cer- 
tain man or woman, or to a certain order of people. It 
is a power that can be had for \he trying, as any good 
mesmerist will affirm and prove. 

f It seems to me that the expression of the Crucified, 
r I and my Father are one," contains a direct affirma- 
tion of the possibility of this blending. \ God was to 
Jesus the very essence of goodness ; Jesus strove to be 
also most thoroughly good, and succeeded in reaching 
that point where Himself was in perfect blending with 
the entire universe of Goodness, and therefore with 
the Fount of all Excellence. 

Perfect blending is perfect love ; and whether that 
love be toward the person, the outer self, the body ; or 
toward the soul, or the mental treasures, or the secret 
self of another, the results are in degree, if not in kind, 
the same. 

Mental telegraphy will be a perfect success, when- 
ever two persons can be found in whom the power of 
entering the region of Sympathia shall normally exist. 
A few can transmit thought to, and receive thought 
back from, others, even now ; but presently scores of 
people will develop the ability. 

Now, this blending is not a mere magnetic union of 
physical spheres, but is a Soul-process nearly alto- 
gether. 

|Love, in its essence, is a thing of the Spiritual part 
of us, though, alas ! it is often put to base usesi 

There was once, not many years ago, a woman to 
whom I felt such a love as that subsisting between 
affectionate sisters ; for it was deeper, purer, calmer 



10 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

than that which binds brothers together. In life, her 
soul drew near, almost fearfully near, to mine ; she 
thought my thoughts, read my spirit, sympathized with 
me in all my joys, my sorrows, and my aspirations. 
Often have we sat beside each other — that poor sick 
girl and I ; and though no word broke the stillness of 
the sacred hour, yet not a region of our souls was there 
but was explored by the other; not a silent thought that 
was not mutually understood and replied to. Presently 
she died — the forms were forever separated, yet not for 
a day were the mystic soul-links which bound us to- 
gether severed. No sister was ever more dearly loved 
than I loved her ; and that love was fully and as 
purely returned. Everybody called her "Sister" — 
everybody felt that to them she was truly such. 

Well, she died ; and after a year or two had passed, 
I began to understand that at times her soul was near 
me, and many and oft were the periods in which I did 
not seem to be myself, but had an invincible conviction 
that I was Cynthia for the time being, instead of who 
and what I am. By-and-by there came a consciousness 
of this blending, so deep, so clearly defined, so calm, 
that at last I began to appreciate a mighty, almost 
resistless Will and Purpose behind it all; fori was my- 
self and Cynthia— never simultaneously, as is asserted 
to be the case with many of the people called " Me- 
diums " — but in separate instants — now her, then my- 
self ; at first very imperfectly, but gradually approach- 
ing an absolute and complete mergement of Soul. 

This continued for nearly two years, at intervals, and 
after about eighteen months had passed, one portion of 
the process seemed to have reached completeness — for 
in a degree it changed, and instead of momentary, as 
before, the transmutations became longer, until at last, 
as now, the changes last sixty, and in one instance has 
reached two hundred and forty-five minutes. 

It may here be asked : " Where are you in the in- 



DEALINGS WITH THE BEAD. 11 

terini ? w and the answer is : " We are two in one, yet 
the stronger rules the hour." 

It will be seen, therefore, that this condition is as 
widely separated from those incident to the " Medi- 
ums," as theirs is supposed to be different from the 
ordinary wakeful mood. Tliey reach their state by a 
sort of retrocession from themselves ; they fall, or claim 
to fall, into a peculiar kind of slumber, their own facul- 
ties going, as it were, to sleep. On the contrary, mine 
is the direct opposite of this, for, instead of a sleep of 
any sort, there comes an intense wakefulness. Nor is 
this , all in which we differ ; as are the processes and 
states apart, so also are the results different. 

The revelations of Spiritual existences, moods, modes, 
and conditions of being, as given by nearly every 
" Spiritual Medium w of whom I have ever heard or 
read, are, to say the least, totally unsatisfactory to the 
great majority of those who seek for information on the 
vital question of Immortality — how, and why, and to 
what great end we are thus gifted and endowed? 

Another, and equally important one, is that concern- 
ing the Soul-world, and the inhabitants thereof — how 
they live, where they live, and to what end and use ? 

I believe that light is, in this volume, thrown on all 
these great and vital points ; such light, indeed, as will 
be hailed and appreciated by all who read and think, 
as well as by those who read and feel — two widely 
different classes, but to both of whom these pages are 
humbly, yet hopefully addressed. 

The process, strange, wierd, and altogether unusual, 
to which allusion has been made, went on for a long 
time ; and by slow degrees I felt that my own person- 
ality was not lost to me, but completely swallowed up, 
so to speak, in that of a far more potent mentality. A 
subtlety of thought, perception and understanding be- 
came mine at times, altogether greater than I had ever 
known before ; and occasionally, during these strange 
blendings of my being with another, I felt that other's 



12 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

feelings, thought that other's thoughts, read that other's 
past, aspired with that other's aspirations, and talked, 
spoke, and reasoned with and under that other's inspi- 
ration. For a time I attributed these exaltations of 
Soul to myself alone, and supposed that I was not at all 
indebted to foreign aid for many of the thoughts to 
which, at such moments, I frequently gave utterance ; 
but much study of the matter has at length convinced 
me, not only that the inhabitants of the Soul-worlds 
have much to do in moulding the great world's future, 
but that occasionally they so manage things that their 
thoughts are often spoken, and their behests, ends, and 
purposes fulfilled by us mortals, when we imagine that 
we alone are entitled to the sole credit of much that we 
say, think, and do, when the fact is, we doubtless are 
oftentimes merely the proxies of others, and act our 
allotted role in a drama whose origin is entirely super- 
natural, and the whole direction of which is conducted 
by personages beyond the veil.* 

Well, one day, it so happened that I repaired to a 
beautiful village in one of the New England States, on 
a visit to some very kind and well-beloved friends — the 
brother and the sister of the rare maiden whose won- 
drous thoughts abound in the volpme now before the 
reader ; and while there, the conversation ran on topics 
wide apart from either Mesmerism or its great cognate, 
" Spiritualism." During the time that had elapsed since 
my last visit to the beautiful village, some two years, 
Death had been busily gathering his harvests in all the 
regions round about ; nor had he kept aloof from the 
house on the hill. No ! cruel Death had been over its 
threshold, and Azrael had carried two precious souls 
over the Dark River. These were Cynthia and her 
mother. 

After partaking of a sorrow-seasoned meal, mourn- 



* That many of them are inhabitants of other spheres, beings who 
nerer lived on this earth, I am firmly convinced. My reasons will be 
given in the sequel to this present volume. 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 13 

fully, and with aching heart and tearful eye, we, the 
left-behind and myself, took our way toward the ground 
where -lay the sacred form of her we loved so deeply, 
so fully ; and there I wept, and the great salt tears 
bedewed the sod — for, indeed, my heart, poor, weary, 
troubled heart, was almost breaking. Soon we re- 
turned to the house upon the hill, and I lay me down 
upon the sofa, near the window — the very sofa whereon 
her sainted form was wont to recline in the days 
now, alas ! fled, with her, forever and forevermore — 
that same little sofa whereon she used to sit and 
converse with us, with her sister Clarinda, the gentle 
and the good John Hart, and her well-beloved Jona- 
than, with my humble self, and a few select and sober- 
minded lovers of the good and true ; used to sit and 
converse upon the mysteries of the Great Beyond, and 
touching the realities of that other world, to which 
Disease was remorselessly, and with relentless purpose, 
fast urging her life-car. * * * And I threw myself 
upon the sofa ; and as I lay there, with closed eyes, I 
beheld the flitting ghosts of many a dead day, with all 
its troops of glad and bitter memories, when suddenly 
it seemed that I was no longer myself — for so deep and 
perfect was the blending, that I had not merely an in- 
surmountable assurance that my body contained, for the 
time being, two complete souls, but even the very 
thoughts, modes of expression, and memory of the de- 
parted one was mine ; and yet this possession did not, 
for an instant, subvert my own individuality. I was 
there, and so was she. For the time being, we two 
were not merely as, but to all intents and purposes, we 
actually were, one. 

Arising from the recumbent position, my body as- 
sumed certain singularities of movement peculiar to 
her before she flew up to her home in the bright em- 
pyrean, and these words were spoken : " The experi- 
ences and history of a Soul must be written, for the 
benefit of the people. I, we, intend to write it. A 



14 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

book shall be produced, containing the facts of a living, 
dying, dead and transfigured human being — containing 
the reasons why men live after death, and the methods 
of their after life and being. This book shall contain 
an account of the experience of two human beings — the 
one, while temporarily disenthralled ; the other, when 
permanently so — shall contain the experience of Cyn- 
thia during her passage from earth to the grave of 
earthly hope and being, and a history of what befell 
thereafter." 

These were the spoken words. Once more I resumed 
my personality, and attended to the affairs of the busy 
world. In other days the promises were kept, and this 
first book was written. 

Nothing further need be said by way of introduction 
to what follows, further than to observe that certain 
Soul-experiences, related in the second part, were mine 
— the writer's — while the reasonings are not wholly 
such. 



(Jptftte: ®k $fflx\-Wott&. 



I purpose to say nothing whatever concerning my 
life as a denizen of the outside world — of my existence 
or career while clothed with the garments of mortality. 
It is of my death that first I wish to speak, and of what 
took place thereafter — of where and how I found my- 
self as soon as the icy hand of Death had touched my 
heart, and frozen up my vitals. While with my friends, 
from whom the change separated me, I was, so far as 
frail mortals in my condition of bodily health can be, 
quite happy and contented — contented to endure, with 
all possible patience, that for which there was no 
medicament, no remedy ; and, all things considered, 
satisfied I lived, and in the self-same spirit died. Died ? 
No ; I am not dead ! — bodies change ; souls can never 
die. Why? For the reason that God, who, like 
human beings, is intelligent and immortal, can Himself 
be never blotted out of being. He is Mind, Memory, 
Love, and Will, not one of which can ever perish ; and 
these being the attributes of man likewise, it follows 
that, so long as He exists, we must also. 

In the year 1854, being ill of consumption, the 
person, an account of whose experience is given in these 
pages, although long previously somewhat familiar 



16 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

with, began to take an especial interest in the great 
subject of an hereafter, as revealed by what purported 
to be the spirits of departed men and women ; and 
then, for the first time, as Death's cold presence 
sensibly approached me afar off, and the sense of 
going began to quicken in my being, I commenced seri- 
ously to speculate concerning immortality, and to pay 
greater heed to the alleged revelations from the mys- 
terious Beyond. 

Bye-and-bye, consumption so wasted me, that I grew 
tired ; and finally, a mist came before my eyes, and shut 
out the fields, the forests, and the faces of my friends, — my 
friends — none dearer than whom, were ever clasped to 
affection's warm heart. * * * * And so I slept, — but 
woke again from out of that strange, deep sleep, called 
Death. The awakening was very strange ! — was such 
as I had never even imagined to be possible. 

M Where am I ?" was asked by myself of that very self. 
Not mine, but a lower, sweeter, more musical voice, soft 
and dulcet as the tinkle of a love bell, answered me 
from out a veil of rosy light, that hung between me, 
and, whatever was beyond. " In the Divine City of 
freed souls, — the land of Immortal, but not Eternal 
rest. 7 ' *..**•■ *)I felt, and knew that I was — dead ! 

As the sense of these words struck upon my soul 
where this voice came from, seemed very strange to me, 
for this reason amongst others : I had, to a certain ex- 
tent, familiarized myself with Physics, and knew that 
sounds were supposed to be the result of certain aerial 
vibrations. Now, supposing this theory to be correct, 
it struck me, that I, a disembodied soul, ought not to be 
competent to discern sounds, for there was neither tym- 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 17 

panum to receive, auditory nerves to conduct, nor external 
ear, to collect these waves of sound. 

It seemed to me, that one of the two prevalent theo- 
ries must be false ; either sound is not material, or that 
the Spirit of a human being is; — for I had not the shadow 
of a doubt, but that I was really, and forever, an in- 
habitant of the soul- world. If sounds are material, how 
was it possible for me to hear them, being a Spirit ? If 
a Spirit is but a refined form of matter, then the notion 
of its eternal durability, is a false one, and there must 
come a period when it too, like the body, must dissolve 
away. These things troubled me. I had passed to 
death, not as a sluggard, and careless of what might 
await me, but with every faculty keenly awake. Nor 
do I suppose five minutes elapsed after I emerged from 
my body, ere I was perfectly alive to all that surround- 
ed me. 

I distinctly saw certain familiar things, and recognized 
them; but there was not any difficulty in comprehending 
the rationale of this; for I perceived that solar light 
wa3 not the only source of illumination the earth pos- 
sessed. Indeed, there is no such thing as darkness. 
The life of all things is light, and although sun, moon, 
and star3 should hide behind an impenetrable veil, yet 
the things of earth would still be visible to the sight of 
the soul. ' 

There are two other sources of light; first, 
the electrical emanations from every material object- 
illumine them, and whatever may be near; and second, 
the air itself, which fleshly lungs inhale, is but the outer 
garb of a finer and magnetic sea, which not only en- 
circles the earth, but stretches away in all directions to 



18 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

the outer limits of creation ; and in this, all things are 
radiant, all things visible. 

These observations were quickly made ; and in an 
instant thereafter, I turned toward the fleecy veil pre- 
viously observed, and saw the figure of an old, gray- 
haired man emerge therefrom, leading *by the hand, a 
sweet and lovely girl apparently about ten years old. 
The gleesome smile on that angel's face, the look of 
bland benevolence on the features of the man, surpassed 
aught of the kind that I had ever seen before. Both of 
them approached, and greeted me. I could not return 
the salutation, because the strangeness and utter novelty, 
not only of my new situation, but of my sensations, 
were such that it was impossible to act as in other mo- 
ments, I feel certain I should have been prompted to. 
The man spoke, and called me " daughter." The tones 
were precisely those I had formerly heard; and two 
things surprised me : First, their serene and liquid 
melody, — so very different from those one would na- 
turally expect to hear from one of his appearance; and 
second, that very appearance itself: for both the man 
and child were clothed after the manner and fashion of 
the earth. 

This was a matter of astonishment, for I had supposed 
that the clothing of the Spirit was vastly different 
from that of the body. Evidently, the old man read 
my mind, and understood the cause of my perplexity. 
Drawing near to where I stood, he touched my forehead 
with his finger, and said, " Be clear, my child, be clear." 

As if that touch were magic, there came an instan- 
taneous change over me ; it was as if I thought to the 
point I wished, and that with perfect clarity. Things, 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 19 

which a moment before were wrapped in the folds of 
mystery, now became transparent as the plainest I could 
wish. 

As a matter of course, I took notice of the friends I 
had just left behind me — yes, behind me, in what was 
now in very truth a far-off world: — even though not ten 
yards intervened between myself and the dear ones, 
who now mourned me; yet in presence of the fact that 
I have very momentous revelations to make, — revelations 
that will startle the world, — I cannot now stop to relate 
my emotions, my sorrows or my joys, for I felt that at 
last I was in the realm of pure knowledge ; and now 
feel that this precious opportunity must be improved, to 
other ends than a mere recital of my emotions and 
sympathies however acute and tender they may have 
been. 

The communication between the soul-world and earth 
is far more difficult and rare than I had believed, or 
than thousands believe to-day. Much, I learned, that 
passes among men for spiritual manifestation, really has 
no such origin, while many things, attributed to an 
origin purely mundane, are really the work of intelligent 
beings, beyond the misty veil. 

Long previous to my final illness, I had held many 
interesting conversations with my friends, concerning 
the higher life and worlds, and particularly with the 
one by whose aid I am now enabled to make these dis- 
closures ; and I had made a solemn compact, to the 
effect, that if it were possible to return subsequent to 
death, I would do so, and, reveal such mysteries as I 
might be enabled or permitted to. This resolution grew 
out of the fact, that not one of the theories, regarding 



20 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

the post mortem existence of human kind, which I had 
ever heard or read, gave me the satisfaction that my 
soul desired. I suspected that many of the current no- 
tions regarding the lands beyond the curtain, were, to 
say the least, largely tinctured with the mind of the 
individuals through whose lips the oracular utterances 
came ; consequently I became, to a degree, suspicious 
of all modern eolism and eolists, because I feared their 
inspirations had not so high and deep a source as they 
claimed, and is claimed for them. 

My mind, in this respect, is still unchanged. The 
first lesson that flashed in upon me, after the mysterious 
clarification of soul to which allusion has been made 
was this : People on earth spend a great deal of time 
in acquiring lessons which have to be unlearned, upon 
their entrance on the upper life ; — must be unlearned, 
ere they can advance far in the acquisition of the rare 
treasures of knowledge, to be found only by the true 
seeker, even in that mighty realm which constitutes the 
soul-world. 

God has placed all true human joys, there, as well as 
on the earth, upon high shelves, whence they cannot be 
taken by proxy ; — they must be reached for by those 
who would have them ; and the more precious the joy, 
the higher the shelf; — the more valuable the volume, the 
greater effort is required to obtain the perusal thereof. 
This is the first great law. 

Now, in collecting what purported to be scraps of 
knowledge, from the realm of spiritual existence, I 
found on my entry there, that I had laid up quite a 
store of falsities in the magazines of my soul: — laid up 
great heaps of what I supposed were the gold and dia- 



DEALINGS WUH THE DEAD. 21 

monds of supernal truth; but which, no sooner had I 
entered the portals of the vast temple of Eternity, than 
I found to be the most useless rubbish; and nearly all 
my treasures proved to be the merest paste and tinsel. 
The first thing, therefore, which the soul desirous of 
attaining real proficiency in knowledge, has to do, is to 
unlearn its follies as quick as possible. 

This process is called by a term signifying vastation, 
or throwing off. Some do this at once and with ease ; 
others linger a long time in error, and only attain the 
great end through great trial and perseverance, just as 
persons on earth. My desire was ever to, and for the 
truth ; hence the process, to me was one of comparative 
ease. The ideas which I had imbibed, and given my 
heart to, concerning matters spiritual, were the same 
that are still current amongst those who accept that 
which is known as modern Spiritualism. Succinctly 
stated, they were these ! first, The spirit of a human 
being is the product of the physical body ; the human 
being is a triplicate, composed of soul, or the thinking 
principle, the body, and an intermediate link, called 
spirit ; possessing all the organs of, and shaped like 
the body, and which serves to connect this last with the 
soul, while on earth, and being its eternal casket after 
death. The soul, spirit and body are called into being 
at one time, and that upon the earth. 

The spiritual body, like the physical, is subject both 
to waste and want, for which ample and due provision 
has by God been made. It has thirst, hunger, and 
amatory love, all of which have their appropriate gratL 
fications in the Spirit-world. This spiritual world itself 
is on the surface of a zone surrounding the earth, at a 



22 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

• 

distance of one hundred miles, more or less ; above this 
zone, is another and another, to the number of twelve ; 
each zone is a ' Sphere/ and its inhabitants are divide d 
off into classes, degrees, societies and circles. All the 
zones are diversified with real and absolute rivers, trees, 
mountains, lakes, landscapes, cities, and so on, just as is 
the material globe ; and all these things are fixtures. 
Such, in brief, are the general ideas on the subject enter- 
tained by the people ; and such as I had believed and 
conceived to be true. But when I came to pass through 
the change, and to realize the new condition, I ascer- 
tained that so far from being founded in reality, they 
were simply — nonsense ! 

According to the foregoing, which is confessedly the 
most popular conception of the realms beyond, and of 
its inhabitants, that world is scarcely better than the one 
that mortals occupy. These notions totally ignore 
Spirit ; for, according to them, Spirit is nothing more 
than matter in an exceedingly refined, or rather, subli- 
mated, condition ; whereas Spirit is no such thing. True, 
it animates material things, but itself is not material. 
It is above, beyond, and discreted from it. Like the 
asymptotes of an arc, it forever approaches, but never 
actually contacts matter. The same general theory ac- 
cords mankind an origin here in space and time merely, 
and at best predicates but sempiternity, or a future end- 
less duration for him; whereas, if soul begins to be at all 
on the plane of earth and matter, it must have but a very 
ill-grounded assurance of an endless race. No, this is 
not correct ; for Soul, like God, is from forever in the 
past, to forever in the distance ; and so far from origin- 
ating on the earth, it has for myriads of asons sped 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 23 

its career through God's infinite Silence Halls, and now 
merges, whether for the first time or not, is needless to 
inquire at this point, into the vocal Harmonead. In the 
life of earth, the soul awakes from its pre-state into one 
as different as can well be thought of ; and at death, it 
experiences another waking, quite as startling, but in- 
finitely more grand. 

The first lesson, then, that I learned was, that with a 
great deal of philosophy, I had but very little knowl- 
edge ; and instead of finding the Soul-world analagous 
to the earth-world, in fact I found them vastly different, 
and possessing no one thing in common, so far as the 
surroundings of the spiritual entrant was concerned. 

All that has been said required several minutes to de- 
scribe, but not ten seconds to experience. 

Hooked toward the old man and the child,marvelling, as 
before observed, that they wore clothing after the man 
ner of the earth-kin, and bore the appearance of ex- 
treme youth and extreme age. " Is it possible that 
years affect souls ? Do we grow old, as well as need 
garments in the other world ?" These queries suggest- 
ed themselves, and while present in my mind, the old 
man came to my right side, and took me by my left hand, 
while the little girl, Nellie, — I subsequently learned she 
had been called by the dear ones left behind her, took 
my right hand ; and both said, " Come, Cynthia, they 
await you : let us go to meet them." 

I now made three important discoveries': First, that 
I was yet in the room, where my breath had been resign- 
ed : that I was clothed in precisely such a dress as I 
had usually worn ; and third, that so far as I could 
judge, I actually trod upon, and walked over a stratum 



24 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

of air, just such air as I had been used to breathe, albeit 
that was not possible any longer, for the reason that 
it was all too heavy for the respiratory apparatus of 
that which now constituted my. body, or at least the 
vehicle of myself — the thinking, acting, living me. My 
method of locomotion differed essentially from that of 
my two companions, who did not walk, but seemed to 
glide along at will through that same air, which was 
to me quite palpable, for I distinctly noticed that its 
touch was of a velvety character, and quite elastic. My 
feet moved ; theirs did not. And so we passed out of 
the house through the open door, — for a person had 
just entered. 

From one or two incidental circumstances that took 
place, not essential to this narrative, and therefore with- 
held, I became convinced that unless some incarnate 
man or woman had raised the latch of that door, it 
must, so far as I was concerned, have remained shut to 
all eternity, barring wind, decay, accident, or an earth- 
quake ; for in my then state of enlightenment on the 
subject, I saw no possible means whereby to effect our 
liberation. It struck me that unless some such agency 
as has been named, came to our assistance, we must 
either make our egress by means of the chimney, or 
stay pent up there until the elements dissolved a portion 
of the edifice ; or, supposing it to be proof against de- 
cay, a dreadful alternative, so it seemed, there we must 
remain for evermore. Subsequently I learned that even 
were such a thing possible, and I never got outside of that 
dwelling, yet it would be far less terrible than fear might 
lead one to imagine or suspect ; for still there would re- 
main, not only an infinity of duration, but also a universe 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. -O 

to move and be in, quite as infinite in both extent and 
variety beside; for the Soul.I soondiscovered,was a Vasti- 
tude in and of itself; and should it happen that not one 
. of the moments of its mighty year be spent in the society 
of others like unto itself, yet there would be but little occa- 
sion for ennui; not one lonely minute need be spent, for all 
its days— if for illustration's sake, I may predicate time of 
that whereof emotions and states are the minutes and 
hours — might be profitably employed in visiting its 
own treasure houses and in counting the rare jewels there 
stored away : besides which, it could perform many a 
pleasant voyage, visiting mighty continents, rare islands, 
wondrDus cities, and marvellous countries of x its own 
tremendous being ; — aye ! it could amuse itself for ages 
lancing a I the hills, valleys, caverns — strange 
i caverns they are too — the oceans, forests, fields 
brakes, and marshes of its mighty self ; nor would 
its resources be exhausted at the thither end of the 
rollii i of Time ; b is not to the soul : its 

duration and successions are of thought, not seconds — 
wonderful, so vast, so illimitable, and, taken 
so incompr le, save by the Over-soul himself, 

is the human being. Soul ! thou august thing I Felt 

»d by none, save God ; and, 

albeit we may explore a little of thy forelands, yet only 

He can penetrate thy depths ; only He can trace the 

streams that water thee to their source, and that source 

can be no other than His divine heart, who, forever un- 

. is never unfelt ; an invisible worker afar off, yet 

hand ; one who spreadeth the banquet, and pre- 

:;i the feasters, who worketh ever in secret, yet 

who doeth all things well ! Soul ! Mighty potentate ! 



26 DEALINGS WITH THE DE 

Victim at once, and victor of circumstance and tij 

Thou enigma illions think they have solved, 

even while thou lang them : who imagining they 

have untied the knot, have not even found the cl 

Strange riddle ! Thing of which men thin 

well informed, because they have k 

names, and can call thee Psyche, Soul, Spii 

and Breath ; word-names, which generally conve; 

as much of thee to the common undci ■-. the 

name-words Algebra. Geometry, Music and Nun 

to the barbarians who hear them pronounced, of 

vast realities- that underlie the sounds or tl 

Soul ! Existence, whereof eolists and pedants learnedly 

prate and bluster in long phrase and loud tone, as if 

thou didst not command silence of t 

approach thee, a : : to know the awful n 

slumbering bene: titles. Soul! Whereof e^ 

body talks so much, but of which eve 

either earth or heaven know so very little, 

Weil, in my ignorance, I felt that unless some one, 
something material, had opened that door, we must 
imprisoned there in that house upon the hill, forever 
for evermore. 

How little, how very little, 1 then knew or suspected 
concerning the mighty powers latent, and never jet fully 
unfolded in any human being— no matter whom, no 
.matter where located, how high in heaven, on earn 
deep down in the bottomless hell, or the blackest 
barathrum of the infinitudes of Possibility. No one 
save God can fathom the profounds of Soul. Why? 
Because, like Him, it is absolutely Infinite : Him, in 
Conscious Power — it, in Capability ! Very imperfect 



"ITU THE DE Ti 

■I nccess 

were then excee inde- 

'. In other and 1 subse- 

quently attained ignora: elled by 

new light which coi y broke in upon my being. 

And we passed beyond the portal of the house, my- 
self crossing itant its that 
of Time ; nor did I one: glance tow; : frail 
and decaying shell from which a joyous thrill of super- 
ciousness told me thai' I had forever escaped ; in- 
deed I had no disposition to do so, for 
new and strange emotions and >ns crc 

upon" me, tl whole attention wa 

thereby ; for they swept like the billows of a w 
troubled lake, across the entire g 
being. One thought, and one alone, connected with 
earth, assmned importance, and that was associated 
with the al phenomenon of dissolution, and it 

hundred ways with the - of 

lightning, but quicker, 
ared to the 
Lt, even in the ( 

to obstruct. '• 

'.'. Hoy. 
I 
tell of li 

nothing, not Teat domain of our God, 

ks one word of of a blotting out of 

Sou!- : even cramped in coares bodies, 

with 
far-]: ing visio. e profoundest depths of 



28 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

space, gazes eagle-like n of Glory, 

laughs death to scorn, and surveys the fields of two 

eternities — one behind, and one before it. This thing 

never die, nor taste a single drop of bitter death ! 

* * * How strange, how wonderfully strange I feel ; 

nations are of excellent health, of exhilarant 

youth, of concentration and power ; nor hath decrep- 

' itude or decay aught therein. 

;; I am not faint, but strong : not sad. but joyous/' 
These were my observations on realizing the great 
change. Many a time had I read and heard of the 
capacity human beings have of experiencing joys purely 
nervous. Nearly all present human pleasured are based 
upon the fineness and susceptibility of the nerves to re- 
ceive and impart magnetic impressions. My nerves 
had aforetime been made to tingle with strange, deep 
bliss when in the presence of those I loved, after their 
return from long absence ; I had tasted the exquisite 
nectar from the lips of an innocent prattling babe, and 
had known the tumultuous thrill of friendship's joyous 
stings ; and yet ail these were as blasts of frozen 
air to what now kept running, leaping, flying, dancing 
ugh me. It was the supremely delicious sense of 
voluptuous joy consequent upon dying. 
■oner joy, or deeper 
bliss would be impossible for man or woman to experi- 
ence than those that now were - while I 
lean iter. 

Mankind expand from ion of two principle 

Intellect and Intuition ; the basis of 

sion, the latter of devel in and 

of the body, are built up by one, some by the ot 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 29 

and man}' rise from the combined action of both. Many 
of the dead pursue the triumphs of intellect and investi- 
gation, just as when on earth. These are the progres- 
sionists — vast in number, great in deed, but constituting 
an inferior order, as they must ever be secondary to 
that vaster host and higher order who climb the ladder 
of intuition. Without egotism, then, but in all hum i 
I say that great joy was mine on ; _ -um- 

bered with the larger army. It was in allusion to the 
fact that all the learning a man may acquire on earth, 
really stands him but little on the other side, that one 
of old declared that in that upper kingdom 
should be last, and the last be first ; for it often hap 
that one almost ignorant in a worldly sense, may have 
the highest and the grandest intuitions of truth, dive 
of the thick coats wherewith learning often clothe 
People in whom intellect predominates over intuition, 
naturally gravitate to their true position in the realms 
beyond. Th to be for a loi : (and of 

"time" can justly be predicated) pilgi 
Spirit-world or middle state, who dl in w 

intuition is exalted, can not only be occasional residents, 
for redemptive purposes, of the outer Spirit-world, but 
are intromitted to the deeper and sublime realities of 
the Soul-world — a world as much different from the 
merely Spiritual kingdom as is the processes ,of a musi- 
cian's soul, when at high tide, superior to the mental 
operations of a midnight burglar. A veil divides f 

as completely as does a similar one separate 
earth from Spirit-land. Two beings there m 
one a resident of a, the other a deniz< 

Spirit-land : the for: with 



\ 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

>heres of tlieir several existences 

q South. The one sees 

the other from posi- 

once explains many of the 

receive, and 

g flood, 
the j )wledg€ flowed in 

through 
mt the hyper-se I joys to which 

3 ever es 
: . ^;ose 

inly 
:unt, 
11 its 

and 

pre- 

ma; 

old gra 

f the 

herein I had lived, i do a 

3 of life. While loolrir., 

r they vrere going, J the 

reise of a power not then fill -stood by m; 

3 air a ft iore,laid /ently on 

patted it tenderly, and said : " C 

- von your home, and then mine, 



' THE DEAD. 31 

id this with a smile, so pure, so 
atly divined that there was truth in 

every one lias a conjugal mate in the 
universe somewhere, albeit I shrank from, and dreaded 
to meet mine, if, indeed, I had one, for I had seen some- 
what of that which passes for love among men ; and, 
while hailing and delighting in amicive, I felt a shud- 
dering disgust at anything that assumed the form of 
amatory love. Love was admired, but its passional 
es feor< d, My tutelage was just 

The touch of the child's I 1 .; plain, palpable 

and physical as any touch ever fell before,— -quite as 

was that of the do moothed 

my dying brow. 'After all, then, ire material. 

el their fingers, see their forms, hear their words, 

and I am in all r as nervously sensitive as ever 

. of sickness i Oh, this mystery of 

rich, after all, seems to be but 

of a single state ; when, when shall it be 

1 through my mind, nor 

but they both read it quite 

If, for the old man smiled gently and 

irl with half-concealed merriment and 

I n off into a strange and peculiar state, 

whether what followed resulted from the touch or 

not, it i iblc to say. A; was seized with 

intense desire to know more of what must be called 

rapid inspection revealed the fact 

that I p ■ . ail and singular, the organs in the new 

condition, that had been in the old. There were my 



32 DEALING THE LEAD. 

hands — real, actual hands, evidently. — but they were 
very thin, pale, emaciated, wrinkled, and of a decidedly 
blue, consumptive caste, — precisely as they had appeared 
every day for the past long months of pain and misery. 
My hair was long, and in ail other respects as before ; 
my feet felt tender ; nor was there any difference 
tween my then, and prior state, except that a nameless, 
thrilling joy pervaded me, and which reft absoln 
nothing to be wished for in that respect ; for as the 
mouth of every nerve drew in the magnetic essence in 
which I floated, it seemed as if living streams of sense- 
joy rushed through every channel -and avenue of being ; 
and it struck me that if there were no other reward 
for having lived and suffered, yet that the sensations 
consequent upon physical death would fully compensate 
a life of agony.'' 

Soon a sense of vacuity stole over me, and brought 
the realization, that having passed through two worlds. 
I was rapidly approaching one .till more erful 

and strange. 

Many a time had I been mesmerized by friend 
for distant-dwelling, by my well-belov her J. in par- 

ticular, who all sought by thai to alleviate my: 

rings; and not seldom had I passed into what is 
popularly termed the Superior State;t and the feeling 

*, All the dead people are not thus fevered. Up t< 

tn inhabitant merely of the Spiritual world, "but had n< 
;he vast domains of the realm of Soul. Ther< 
worlds into which it is possible for man to step into from 
of the grave, as all will be co 

introductory work a careiul pern 
f My researches have proved to me, that in nine 
■ an entire average, the sleeping sul 



THE DEAD, 33 

induced by Nell -h was akin to that, but was far 

more profound. First there ea >rt of mental re- 

tro-, consequent upon my previous intellectual 

activity. The soul-principle to bound back 

from its investigations of the previous moment, to a 
pinnacle within itself, from whence ir as rapidly sunt 
down into one o own 

Down, down, still lower and into the awful 

ttary and 

halls. The outer realm. 

mbitions, 

13, likes, anti] ions: all its shadows 

left behind, and naught 

1: for its lakes and 

I its tiny brook- its beetling 

fc, very dis rant, until 

•i'ror crept over me, and 

all, the fearful doctrine 

I at instead 

'.vd. or some one 

accepted — serves as 

le reachin y ireecl 

)f the exercise of this 

Ion, lead directly to bad results, for the 

and 

1 phases of 

ing, or be- 

ruiuous one to all concerned, producing pestilence 

where both parties are good and pure, no 

: last an abnormal susceptibility results 

nan may be led into " the jaws of death, into 

the mouth of hel trse concerning indiscriminate mag- 



34 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

migM be true, which declares, that some human beings 
are God-doomed to annihilation ; and the anguish that 

this conceit brought with it, was almost unbearable, 
even by a free-born soul. But, thank God! this last 
folly of the philosophers, — last and greatest save one— 
the doctrine that "whatever is is right/ 7 in every and all 
senses, is a libel on Himself and His goodness. 

Finally it seemed as if my being had been concentered, 
or focalized to a single point, and even that soon faded 
out, and an utter blankness enveloped my soul. How long 
this continued is impossible to be -told, but the next ex- 
perience was that consequent upon a series of sudden 
thrills or shocks, like unto those which a person receives 
who takes hold of the conducting knobs of a highly 
charged galvanic battery, — or rather when touching 
the cup of a leydeii jar. These instantly aroused me. 
I started up as from a death-stupor. But what a change, 
if not in myself, at least in my surroundings ! I was in 
the center of a new. but limited world. Around me 
was an atmosphere of mellow rosy light, different from 
any ever known to me before,— an atmosphere, radiant, 
sweet, soft, and redolent with perfumes of an order and 
. fineness surpassingly grateful. I was in the Soul-world, 
- — my Soul-world : — a realm whereof God alone was 
Lord— -and I His tributary Queen. The feelings con- 
sequent on this induction were strange, but plea 

The thoughts that now arose, were not, as forme 
mere shadowy forms, inconsistent and impalpable, nor 
was the scene of their action within the head; true, 
they were born there, but that was all. They were 
no longer subjective merely, fleeting and ephemeral, 
but were objective, positive and real. I saw, but not 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 35 

alone with" eyes, for-the simulacrae of the objects wit- 
nessed within that sphere, even the faint outlines of the 
'most far-off memograph, seemed to stream in upon me 
through a thousand new doors, and I appeared to ac- 
quire knowledge by two opposite methods : first by go- 
ing out involuntarily to whatever was to be known; 
and second, by absorbing the images of things, — just 
as the eye absorbs a landscape. 

A person beholding me at that moment, would have 
concluded, and rightly too, that I had just arisen from 
off a sort of cloud-couch near the center of the sphere, 
toward which my face was turned. On that couch I 
beheld the exact image, not of my person, but of the 
clothes, the resemblance of which to those once worn 
on cartli, it will be remembered, had so greatly sur- 
prised me in the earlier part of this experience. While 
yet I gazed upon that ghost of a dress, it slowly faded 
into nothingness. Desiring to know the rationale of 
this occurrence, it came to me that the worlds are not 
only full of objects, but must necessarily be still more 
full of the images thereof, — images which fix themselves 
more or less permanently, on whatever plastic material 
which they may chance to come in contact with. Some- 
times the lightning will pass over a body or object; 
and in passing will fix and bring oat into visibility the 
images of tilings already there. Nature is full of 
mirrors. This is the memory of Matter — the Photo- 
graphy of the substantial universe. Memory is but the 
photography of soul. Everything that strikes the eye, or 
the senses in anyway, leaves an exact image of itself upon 
the cylinder of Retention, which cylinder winds and 
unwinds, according as it takes on or gives off the ini- 



86 

ver it mar be. Thus of a 

tone :iar trill, as well as of 

be, and are photo soul. 

Not] Qot even iting 

about us, day after day. The 

ami of a snow storm, a sleet shower, an 

h garden, the countless flowers on 

ial eye never rested, are all safely 

care mguerrian Art 

lie material worlds until someti; frost will 

window 3r r or 

ted throu e into 

lcamates them in .marble, 

his revelation, o 
s a higher world than "most men ] 
1 that too, right around 
vents are but a simple pro 
Peiiic " Photography. Al 
gs, all events, are but God's thon for a 

•. These mental images go for rder, 

constitute th cue procession of the ages, and 

all human events and destinies are but the externaliza- 
Bc fore-had thoughts. Here is the r 

hecy. Certs sous are so 

t moving in the Spiritual atmosphere, which 
3-images of approaching eve: 

I lo ! *in the coming years the 
occu] are enacted; for the spiritual 

have n, — the reflected image of the Deific 

thou. at last passed through the dark material 

cam: a law of ecle listry, 

tght out to the surface, or ' developed/ by the grand 



lipulators of Nature's laboratory, and lo ! anew 
the world and age rejoices, though individuals and com- 
munities may mourn. 

There is truth, therefore, in the doctrine of fore-ordi- 
nation. But this truth is general always, and not par- 
ticular, for while the current and area of events are 
pre-established, still every soul, in any and all its states, 
1ms an absolute sphere of self-itivity : — the law of 
Distinctness permits it to take the utmost advantage of 
conditions for its own improvement. For instance, 
take that which constitutes a peach tree, or a rose, give 
it and its successors the best possible chance to unfold 
its latent properties, and the rose or peach principle 
will put forth, in the course of two gen 
of beauties, an ocean of perfume, a 
which, judging the plants by what . iginally, 

never contained ; and yet nothing is more certain 
than that every plant, eyen the prickly pear, the brist- 
ling thorn, and unsightly thistle, contain the germs of a 
beauty too vast to be comprehended by mortal man. 
In the succeeding pages there is an account of God 
and Monads which will add much to the needed light 
on this subject. I cannot expre 

suitable conditions, which can or had in the midst 

of religious calm, holy solitude, and beneath a more 
sunny sky than bends over us at the present writing. 
As the appearance of my dress faded away, and the 

. just faintly limned, flashed across me, I began 
to realize somewhat of the majesty of the thing called 
soul ; and saw that, while the dress was a mere spectral 
garb, so also were those of the little girl and the old 
man — they were illusory — mere will-woven- garments, 



38 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

— nothing but appearances. And yet, had I been ques- 
tioned in regard to the matter, while in my previous 
state, I would have -freely sworn that all I saw was 
real, — for in my then unenlightened state, 'they were so. 
This suggests the subject of insanity. A man may be 
in a state wherein he can only behold appearances. To 
him they are real, to some one else they are false, while 
to those who can look over the entire ground, i>oth 
would be deemed right and both wrong. Man is of 
birthright a creator, and the law of Distinctness forces 
his creations to resemble himself. If he is poor and 
lean, so will be the world he fashions around him voli- 
tionally, or which shall be his natural and spontaneous 
out-creation. The highest happiness of man is found 
in the act of creation, whether it be poem, picture, en- 
gine, system of thought, or anything else. Hence the 
enfranchised soul, dwelling iii its real world, on the 
thither side of time, has the power of assumption to a 
degree commensurate with its desire for wisdom, its 
determining motives, the good it has done, and the 
ends of use it has accomplished. It can, therefore, 
assume any form it pleases, — but for the purpose of 
wrong-doing, or concealing its identity, it is utterly 
powerless in this respect ; so that while it may mas- 
querade as much as it chooses to for its amusement, 
that of others, or to instruct ; yet A must be forever 
known as A, nor can A ever pass for B, save in cases 
of insanity, wherein A has a firm conviction that he is 
really B, in which case, and for redemptive ends, he is 
sometimes recognized as B, till his cure is effected. It 
is in accordance with this law of distinctness that the 
righteous dead, who do reallv sometimes come back on 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 39 

visits to their former homes, always appear to men clad 
as they used to be when incarnated. They arc com- 
pelled to this course by an integral law of soul, so long- 
as there are- any on earth capable of recognizing them, 
or so long as a good descriptive portrait may exist, If 
the likelihoocTof identification does not exist, then the 
spirits may assume such instructive or beautiful forms 
as are either the spontaneous expression of their interior 
state, or as their goodness may suggest, and unfolded 
wisdom prompt. 

Some of my readers may feel disposed to inquire, 
ki Where was my soul when it made these interesting 
discoveries ?" The response is : not in space, not in 
time ; for I was in a condition above and beyond these, 
just as tunc is above tone, or as meaning is above and 
beyond the mere sound of the words conveying it. I 
sustained the precise relation to time, and space, and 
matter, that heat does to cold, light to shadow, shape 
to essence, phantasmata to reality, bulk to number, 
number to mass, or any two antithetical things whereof 
men may have ideas, I had become a resident of a new 
universe, differing as greatly from that upon which 
-nan's vision rests, as that itself is different from dream- 
land. My glad soul had crossed the shores of time 
and distance, and the barque of its existence was fairly 
launched upon the vast ocean of a new eternity. 

0, ye babblers of vain philosophy, who nurse folly 
for aye, and call it wisdom, ye who are so deeply en- 
grossed in nursing your pet theories — theories planted on 
nothing, and reaching nowhere, what know ye really of 
the other stages of human existence ? Nothing ! Aye, 
truly, nothing ! and echo, hollow echo, gives back — 



DEA1 EAD. 

nothing! Aye, verily, nearly all your crude specula- 
tions, and smooth plausibilities are as void of reality, 
are as hollow as is the shell of an echo when ail the 
sounds have flown ! Your fine-spun hypotheses, con- 
cerning the origin of the human soul,* its nature and 
the mode of its existence subsequent to physical disso- 
lution, are too meager and unsound --aye ! void as is a 
vacuum of substance and solidity : uor with all your 
loudly trumpeted knowledge of the state and status 
of the soul after its departure from the barbarisms of 
tily life, to the true social state in realms where 
civilization is first truly known, have ye much • 
than the faintest glim -. Phi- 

Veril li learning hath made you m 

in soul 
merely sen- t shoulc 

^ated, and where appetite and its varied gratift- 

: of enjo 
d co as! What a magnificent destiny! 

iri soul ! How grea t a reward for 
phy, how very lame thou 
tan, through thy oracles, that the spirit- 
: upper surfaces of sundry zone- 
of the planet : and by the same rule we mar ex- 
:-e to describe God as being so many cub* 
nanyj thehipsl Xay,thoumightestas 

:iit as containing just so many cubic 
inches, and deal out music to us by the* quart or gallon! 

* Which it is firmly believed is herein briefly - the first 

since the world began. Theme Ines hereinafter presented, 

will he fully volume. ■ 

r 



we 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 41 

Philosophy, thou'rt sick ! else thou would est have found 
a better adapted home for immortal beings, than an 
electric land formed of the rejected atoms from the 
various earths. To thee, and in thy light, an oak tree 
is but an assemblage of material atoms : a rose, its 
thorns, leaves and. moss, are only such : the wild tiger 
of the jungle, the humped-back camel of Zahara/s sands, 
the sportive lamb, unsightly toad, the serpent in the 
grass, the dove in its cote : the flitting bat, and the flap- 
winged night-owl, the majestic giraffe, and the beauty- 
plumed warbler of the forest, are to thee but mere forms 
of exuberant life ; mere natural products, the sponta- 
neous gifts of an all-bounteous, but unintelligent, non- 
conscious natural force. Panthea! Shame on thee, 
Philosophy, shame, because with the open book be- 
fore thee, thou hast steadily refused to read, nor ever 
even dreamed that each one of these things indicates 
the stage of out-growth to which a monad — constitut- 
ing its spiritual center, has arrived, on its journey from 
God, througli Matter, back to God through Spirit ! It 
hath never struck thee that each of these things, and 
all other objects in the vast material realm, constitute' 
single letters in God'a-alphabet,* and a letter too, hav- 
ing a fixed and absolute meaning, significance, and un- 
alterable value. Weak man i thou dostnot even imagine 
that nil these things are of thyself— thy kind — abi 
the epoch wherein they will, as thou hast already sprung, 
leap forth to light, and new, and proper human life. 



*God said. ; I am Alpha and 0:. inning and the End.' 

How beautiful, how grand is the light thrown on 
deeper meaning, by the few lines to his note : 



Thou dost not i ;at they arc latent while thou 

and thy kind are activ aoving thoughts of one 

great eternal thinker ! Thou hast not yet learned that 
every living thi [ e or sentient, is a temporary 

home of a mighl "But do you not know that 

scientific men have created conditions which have 
duced indeperid 1 therefore unknown, undreamed 

of forms of animi ;5 ;. an( j others ? ?; 

This objection d validate the truth, nor weak- 

en the force of the statement. All things have a use. 
Nothing has been made in rain. Even tim most dis- 
gusting traits in animals, are matched in tin, 
and the poverty an the obscenity and loath- 

lmess of ma beings, rival, na their 

>rld. Xafcure is 
; nor dare you say that 
there were not conditions that befell a monad or mo 
in which tin al law did not demand and see: 

of the chemist, which resulted in the 

of an a< hich may have afforded the 

ssary requirements of various monads, or human 

eir career, 
t is alive with imprisoned spirit ; every 
J | e of th nique, and existing in innumer- 

able loids, contains a monad, a germ, concealing within 
itself capacities quite infinite in number and power. 
During its long probation it ever seeks to escape its 
outer bonds, just as certain shell-fish and serpents cast 
their old envelopes. But in every stage of its unfold- 
ing, every monad expresses a lesser or higher phase of the 
one great thought of God— Personality, Coherence, 
Powt Unity. Ail the characteristics of the floral, 



WITH THE DEAD. ' 

vegetable and animal kingdoms, are but elements oi 
something higher, afterwards expressed in the human. 
Thus a fox means shrewdness — cunning, low cun- 
ning : and that some men have not yet outgrown 
their recollections and applications* of fox-craft, is 
self-evident to the most casual observer. The ass 
is the natural symbol of patience, the cat of dupli- 
city, the lion of firmness ; an elephant stands as gener- 
osity, the horse is pride ; the peacock, vanity, the dog 
lion; and so on through an infinite scale of varia- 
. All living tilings are but developing monads, at 
whose bottom slumbers what will one d an impe- 

rial human soul ! And these monads develope off their 
surfaces continually : the longer and more varied the 
process, the more beautiful the gran at each suc- 

cess! Thus the monad whose highest manifes- 

tation ten thousand years ago, may have been a thistle, 
up to heaven this day from the glorious 
of a rose-bush, or a dove. The great truth seemf 
have been apprehended by the great army o 
ade thinking a business ; that while 
flowers are not, as such, endowed with 
y, yet at every stage of their being 
they constantly give off images of themselves, which are, 
and ever will be immortal. These images constitute 
the "pictures of the soul- world ; but the essence, the in- 
nate force that developed that of which they are the 
representations, returns to God whence it started, a full 
and. regal human soul. Thus it is seen how r and why 
man is the culmination of nature, and is brother to the 
flower and the worm. 



44 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

" All are 3 of one stupei >le," 

Al1 Mags the body,— man the regal soul ! 

No telescope has yet enabled man to count the rounds 
in the ladder of luminous worlds ; no microscope re- 
veals the mysteries imbedded in a grain of wheat. 
Still he may count them, if he will ; may delve into 
their secrets if he shall so elect: yea, if he will but listen 
to the fine voice speaking up from his inmost deeps, he 
may learn somewhat of the 



^ " Up, up, up, there in the steep and silent heaven 

there shines a radiant sun, more glorious than even a 

seraph might tell. Its essence is not matter, but spirit ; 

and from its surface there go forth three kinds of light; 

the one in rays, another in waves. Condensed, the former 

l3ecc tter'and the latter is the ocean in which it is 

upborne,— in which the worlds are floating, and in which 

all tilings have a being. Aye ! ail things ride upon 

the billows of this infinite sea, even as a shallop or an 

egg-shell sails upon the tiny wavelets of a lake. The 

third substance given off from this great sun goes forth 

in confiscations. The first kind of light proceeds from 

the surface, the second from the interior, the third 

from the very heart of this infinite center,— or from God's 

body, Ris spirit, and His soul. The first is pure fire, 

' the second pure life, the third is the sea of monads. 

Every scintilla of that which proceeds from the soul of 

this sun (like that which proceeds from a human brain 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 45 

in action) is a thought, shot out into the vast expanse, 
but destined to return by another pathway, not di- 
rect, but circuitous and spiral. Well, (says the voice 
speaking from within to the philosopher who is listen- 
ing to the revelation) I was one of these monads, and 
found myself enveloped in a myriad folds and firmly im- 
bedded in a granite rock, where I remained shut up for 
long ages, pining constantly for deliverance from the 
thraldom. Even then I found my monad heart pulsing 
with a divine life, and ardently longed to celebrate 
the knowledge; for I knew I came from Deity, and 
longed for my return v 

My first recollections are of a fiery character, for 
my dwelling was in the very nucleus of a comet that 
tad just been whirled into being. How ? I cannot 
now stop to explain. Only this will I say : with me 
there were myriads of others, for in every molecule of 
spiritual and material substance, was imbedded one of 
my brethren, all longing to escape and return to the 
heart of God, whence we had been sCnt forth to per- 
fect His great design. 

The comet cooled : became a world, and finally an 
earthquake threw the block of granite wherein was I. 
to the surface; and bye-and-l r waiting many ages, 

I found room to move, and did so. The result was 
that we— the other monads and myself, changed our outer 
shells into moss. The moss died, and left us free to 
try what further we could do; for be it known that our 
forces had not yet been fairly called into action. The 
next change was a higher one, and afforded scope for 
the display of a higher order of power. This time I 
became a plant: and the next time a plant of a higher 



4(5 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

character: at cacli epoch losing one coat:" until at last 
I could be plant no longer, and so was forced by a law 

bin, as well as laws without myself, to bee 
center of an animal. And so I ran the gamut of change 
through countless ages; every new condition being more 
and more favorable, brought out new properties from 
within me, and die new beauties to the sun's 

bright eye. I was still a monad, and will ever be such 
in one sense; albeit Time, after reaching my human form, 
will be of no account, — only states. Something whis- 
pered me that I should ever advance toward, but never 
reach perfection. I felt that, though I was, 

heart, my core, my center, I was the germ of 
imor-al human soul, and that that soul itself was des- 
tined to throw off form after form after its material caree* 
was ended, just as I had all along the ages. And thus 
I passed through countless changes, exhibited a million 
eristics, until at last, I who' had at first worn a 
body of 1 l of granite, then of moss, now put on 

a higher and nobler dress, and beea he first ti 

self-conscious, intelligent,, and in a degree, intuitive 
both as to the past, the pre e future, 

all these infinite changes were < 3 off. 

in. regular order, just as material sune ring 

after rin 1 in turn resolve 

after planet. During all thee nigrations, my monad 

body was active. 1 >ul quies 

re nn of a grand 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 47 

the while ; first in plant, then in the lower and higher 
forms of fish, reptile, bird, beast andmammel, — quadruped 
and bimanal. Thus I had reached the most disti 
pheey of what I was hereafter to become; and as it may 
interest you to learn the steps by which I ascended, 
from the pre-human, to the very human, I will recount 
them in general. The list is therefore as follows : the 
first approach to the man was, when I found nr 
successively animating, as a central life-point, the forms 
of Siniae, Satyrii, Troglodyte, the Gibbons, Hylobates, 
and Cynocephalii, passing through the specific forms of 
Coiuga, Aye-aye, Banca-Tarsier, Maholi, Lemur, 
Loris, Diadema, Indrus, Marikina, Marmoset, Douro- 
eouli, Saimari, Yarke, Saki, Couzio, Cacajou, Sajou, Sa- 
kajon, Araquato, Meriki, Coitii, Marimondi, Charneck, 
Drill, Mandril, Chucma, (baboon,) Wanderoo, Bhun- 
der, Togue, Mona, Quesega, Colubii, Budong, Entellus, 
Kahaw, (developing the liuman nose,) Gibbon, Siamang ; 
theHylo 1 ,tes, Orangs. Chimpanzee, Gorrilla, Xschiego, 
Troglodyte, Kooloo Karnba, Barbeta, Aitcromba, Ha- 
maka, (Troglodyte of Mount dc Garrow,) Xeg ; Bos- 
jesman, Hottentot* Negro, Malay, Kanaka, Digger, 

confirmation thereof 
id in the ra i and 

animal features, but in the still more wonder 

i icreni.mt. le ap- 

of moss, lichen, gelatin, reptile, bii and so o 

lal human form, and if the g ren a 

c female he interrupted at a certain stage, the chi 
the characteristics wl inguish the auimal whose natural place 

station was 
of the Lemurs : ibe 
human Lusus Naturae bird, 

or monkey. It is ^voman o 



48 DEAL!: .11 THE DEAD. 

Indian, Tartar, Chinese, Hindoos, Persians, Arabian, 
Greek, Turk, German. Gaul, Briton, American ! There's 
the list, in general terms ; specific explanations are not 
needed at this point. The last eighteen are strictly 
human, for at the point (N*eg) I ceased to develope ani : 
mal : and in passing through that highest form of ani- 
mal existence, I was impelled one step further, and lo i 
the first course of transmigrations were ended ; I 
awoke to a consciousness of self, and man, the immortal 
stood revealed ! 

Thus I supply the lost links. Philosophers, which 
connect you with the worlds above, around, and below 
the plane on which you move/*' 

[Note. — The exact order is not stated, for there are many intermediate 

links : e, with the Lemurs and I r with 

portion of the genus of the Quadrumana comprising the Gorilla, 

and Chimpanzees ; yet the chain itself is 

ting, quite corr 

Thus is completed the outlines of the history of 
a human soul. Let us return to the awakening. 
* * ''• * * * I now realized that the Soul 
and Spirit-worlds were far different from each other, 



Charleston, South Carolina, wj . oked 

ts a monkey out and out. The w 
had never seen a monkey in her life, so that th'.s was nor 
mere mother-marking, but gestation was i icts in 

some way. at about the nineteenth day after cone, went 

on normally in other respects. An additional proof of the truth of this 
development theory is seen in the fact 

produc f the 

same city produced a hoy by a bla< :r who is to 

one of the most extraordi 

Pub. 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 49 

for the former is within, but the latter, like the 
planetary worlds, is without ; — not in the sense of in 
the house and out of the house, but rather in the sense 
of in the bed and in a dream, — not exactly, but ana- 
logous. The fact is, mankind, albeit many know it not, 
are living upon the confines, at least, if not occasionally 
full residents of two or three worlds at the same time — 
worlds which impinge upon, and interlace each other, 
just as fine spirit contacts rough matter^ and yet, 
while this fact is so, it happens likewise that in many 
respects these worlds are as wide apart, and distant 
from each other, as is Pleiades from Mazaroth, or distant 
sun from twinkling planet ; for the reason that states, 
not miles, separate the denizens of either. Those whose 
being is in accord with the vast Harmonead, move alike 
upon the shores of each sphere of being, whence they 
can catch the echoes and foot-falls of the pilgrims on 
both banks. Most people are familiar with the stereo- 
typed assertion that ' Man is a microcosm — a universe 
in miniature/ than which nothing can be more correct 
and true. The body is not the man ; neither is the 
nerve-center of his brain that which constitutes his 
personality, any more than the central spiritual sun 
around which all material systems revolve, is the 
supreme God himself ; for even as Deity dwells within 
the centralia of that august luminary, so also does the 
very man himself hold his court within the bosom of 
that magic sphere which exists within his skull. In 
the subjoined description of the student, — (see part two 
of this volume) the sentient and conscious point is 
spoken of under the similitude and figure of a fiery globe. 
The likeness is imperfect in some respects, for not only 
3 



50 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

is man a world within himself, but he is an entire sys- 
tem of worlds, each one of which is perfect of its order, 
full and complete. God is at once a center, a Republic 
and a King. So also is man in a finite degree. His 
faculties may be said to constitute the distinct members 
or States or nations of the great confederation, where- 
of the supreme Ego is sovereign Lord and President, — 
one, however, who can, if it so elect, assume and wield 
despotic power over all within the great domain.' So 
far can this power be carried and exerted, that pain 
may be overcome, and even death itself be kept at bay. 
The will is Lord of man ; s accidents and incidents, and 
if his reason guide it well, nothing can withstand its 
force. 

As stated previously, all foregone thoughts and deeds 
of mine became objectified in my new sphere, or on 
what I can find no descriptive term, good as that 
of Memorama, for such it truely was, — and the fact of 
its existence at all ought to become a significant one to 
mortals, for even as their deeds and thoughts shall be 
on earth, even so will be the delights or agonies conse- 
quent upon their inspection of these memory tables on 
the other shore, whither all must go, whether the voy- 
age be agreeable or not. (Memory constitutes the basis 
of man's heaven or his hell. On it is founded the su- 
perstructure of his sorrows or his joys, and woe be to 
whomsoever shall read, and reading, neglect the caution 
here imparted. I give it in all love, for I know its im- 
mense importance. 

My thoughts and actions — even the minutest, passed 
before me, across the polished surface of my enclosing 
sphere, standing out in bold relief. The pictures in- 



DEALINGS WITH THE BEAD. 51 

cessantly altered their aspect, or gave place to new 
ones, but there was something which did not change, 
but on the contrary seemed to gather weight and dura- 
bility all the while. This was the attention point, — 
the focalization of all the soul's observant powers, nor 
did it undergo any permutation whatever. I stood, as 
previously intimated, in the center of a crystaline 
sphere. It was translucent, but not transparent. No- - 
thing beyond its glory-tinted walls was discernible, but 
all within it stood repealed in grand and cryptic light, 
which, as already observed, appeared to proceed from 
my own head. The vertical diameter of this sphere 
was not more than fifty yards, its horizontal one some- 
what more, — for its form was slightly ellipsoidal. Its 
floor was as a polished mirror, reflecting not only my 
own image, but those of all things else within its beau- 
tiful walls. In this mirror-like surface I beheld my 
person and features most distinctly ; and it was quite 
a matter of surprise to discover that I was, without the 
slightest effort- on my part, completely and beautifully 
clo tlied in garments of a fashion and style which, of 
all others, I should have selected, had opportunity for 
so doing been presented. Here is a new mystery of 
the Soul- world which may well engage the attention of 
Psychologians. Depending from my neck and shoulders 
was a long and flowing robe, apparently seamless, and 
woven of lightest gossamer. The fore-arms and left 
shoulder joint were bare, and I noticed that they, as 
well as my hands, had lost the sickly caste, and shrunk- 
en, shrivelled appearance formerly characterizing them. 
Now, to my great delight, they were fair, plump, and of 
the most dazzling and voluptuous mould and propor- 



52 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

tions. As I made this happy discovery, there flashed 
across me something of the deeper meanings slumber- 
ing beneath the phrases " love, loving, and lovely;" 
and I could comprehend why one person should become 
so en rapport, so obsessed with, and possessed and ab- 
sorbed by another, as to lose not only all self-control, 
but self altogether. I could now understand why the 
most loving must ever remain apart, even in the most 
interior communion on earth, until there are no dull 
senses to be bridged, and understand the amazing differ- 
ence between a love that seeks its solace through sense, 
and that which brings souls together. While people 
are enwrapped in flesh and blood, love is often obliged 
to express itself in modes distasteful to its higher nature, 
and unworthy of itself. Not so in the Soul-world ; for 
there the very joy (magnetic, if you please,) which one 
lover feels in the mere presence of the other, reaches a 
point of fullness, completion and intensity that mere 
nervous filaments are incapable of conveying, mere ner- 
vous exhalations can never give. No body is capable 
either of giving or receiving, even with the strongest 
efforts of will, even a foretaste of the joys which the 
soul, freed therefrom, can and does spontaneously. 4 The 
keenest Sybarite, — the finest-nerved voluptuary can 
have no adequate conception, either of the nature or 
the depth 'of the joy imparted mutually by two loving 
souls in the higher worlds. Love, I have said, I knew 
but little of, and cared less for, previous to my de- 
parture ; but now, as I gazed upon myself, and realized 
for what I was intended, there arose a something with- 
in assuring me of my boundless — limitless capacity to 
and for love. And then the gentle hint of Nellie came 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 53 

back, and had the mate assigned me then appeared, I 
do not think he would have met a very cold reception. 
Thereafter all this ended as God decreed It should — 
rightly. 

Around my waist there was a zone or belt of blue, 
which kept the fronts of my open robe together, 
and then feU floorward in two knotted tassels on the 
left side. The throat and upper portions of my bosom 
were covered with what bore the appearance of finest 
lace, whiter than the driven snow. The hair hung in 
luxuriant curl-tresses adown my back and cheeks, which 
latter, as disclosed by the floor-mirror, were no longer 
sunken, sallow or emaciated in the least degree ; on 
the contrary they were round, full, white, fair as the 
cheeks of daylight, and suffused with the softest and 
most delicate tints of the newly- opened blossom of the 
peach tree. The teeth! — I had teeth — were ivory- 
hued, large and even. The eyes were larger than they 
had ever seemed before ; their lashes were long, dark 
and drooping ; and they were shaded by a brow far 
more delicate and finely pencilled than they ever were 
on earth. My stature was a trifle less, apparently, 
than when incarnated, and there was a health, vigor, 
and freshness, which reminded me of the early days, 
ere woman's estate had come with all its cares and 
toils, its miseries and deep griefs. About my head there 
was a shining band, like unto the spirit of a silver 
coronet, pearl and diamond frosted, and flashing back 
the light from a thousand jeweled points. In the center 
of this zone was a triangle of ruby hue, surmounted 
with the cypher " R," and in its center was a crystaline 
globe, winged, and bearing the motto, " Tky." 



54 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

Curiosity is the soul of advancement ; it is a female 
element almost exclusively ; and though all else forsake 
woman, curiosity never will, either on earth or any- 
where else. It prompted me to the_ investigations 
above recounted, and to others which followed hard 
thereon. I wondered how my feet and ankles looked 1 
The desire was no sooner formed than gratified. The 
latter were encased in proper attire, but the former 
not quite so, for instead of a shoe, as I expected to find, 
there was only a sort of sandal,— a mere sole, light 
and graceful, fitting perfectly, and seemingly kept in 
place by narrow red bands, which were laced to the 
ankles and over the foot and instep. The bands them- 
selves seemed to be of a material no coarser than cords 
of braided light. Such, in brief, were the revealments . 
of the mirror. " Mirror ! " exclaims the reader, " why 
mirrors are adapted only to solar light, and that which' 
proceeds from material combustion. They reflect from 
their polished surfaces, according to the well-known 
laws of optics, which laws cannot possibly obtain of 
the strange world of which you were then an occupant, 
— which realm lies above and beyond the sphere of 
their action or influence ; how then could you see the 
image of yourself ? ;; Again : "If the first suit of 
apparel in which you found yourself after death, were 
only mere appearances, of what nature or character 
were these last ? If the spirit of a human being is, 
as we are led to infer from your narrative, in nowise 
physical, or even hyper-physical, as the Spiritualists 
assert — and they claim to know all about the matter, 
• — if it is only a phantasmal projection from the very 
S9UL, — an out-attachment of the supreme self, how do 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 55 

you reconcile your statements concerning ' blue-caste 
hands, wrinkled epidermis, shrivelled appearance/ and 
so on, with your subsequent assertions that they after- 
wards became fair, plump and beautiful ? Do shadows 
grow ? Do phantasms avail themselves of the law of 
increment ? Please explain ; clear up, elucidate 1 " 
Reply : These are the very points concerning which 
the people need light ; for assuredly that which they 
have heretofore received, instead of illumining the sub- 
jects under consideration, have tended directly to in- 
crease the already dense obscurity, and only rendered 
the darkness still more palpable and dense. In order 
to a clear conception of what lies before us, it will be 
well to remind each other that both soul and body act 
under the impetus of two distinct codes of law : the 
one volitional, the other mechanical, and therefore in- 
voluntary. An illustration of both is seen in the case 
of a man who either reading a book or earnestly con- 
versing as he moves along, takes no notice whatever of 
passing persons or things, and yet pursues the direct 
path, nor once misses his way. Both laws are operating 
simultaneously. The bodily powers are under the same 
government ; for the heart beats, digestion proceeds, 
and all the functions of the physical economy are 
carried on by a power lying altogether back of will. 
There is also another law, which from voluntary, at 
length comes to manifest itsel£ altogether involuntarily. 
I refer to the law of Habit. Now that this law governs 
both soul and body is proved by a simple reference to 
the swearing man, who also drinks liquor, chews to- 
bacco, falls asleep at a given hour and wakes up at an- 
other. Whosoever hums a tune often, will at length 



56 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

be haunted by it$ and cannot rid himself of . the tor- 
menting tune-fiend by even the most strenuous resolve and 
effort to do so. It, like a fever, must, and will run its 
course. We also habituate ourselves to certain forms 
of expression, and ideal associations. Thus much by 
way of preface. 

Now it was the involuntary obedience of my soul to 
the Habit-law, that caused it to array itself in the sem- 
blance of the old and well-remembered dress. The 
law of the association of ideas gave the 'blue caste/ 
the wrinkles and the emaciation which so surprised me. 

Presently, however, I passed under the operation of 
higher laws of nature, and more interior ones of my 
own immortal soul. One of the first, and most im- 
portant of these last, is the law of Yastation — where- 
by the soul throws off the old loves, preparatory to 
entering upon new ones. Its first involuntary act, in 
the second, as in the first case, was to clothe itself ; 
but no longer subject to the old law of association, and 
coming under a new one, it rejected the things of 
memory, and assumed the garb corresponding to its 
new-born loves, — all in conformity to a law within it- 
self. [In dreams, the garb and surroundings are 
typical or symbolic of mental, moral and esthetic 
states : therefore it is possible to construct an exact 
science, of dream-interpretation.] And the drapery as- 
sumed was not merely the result of caprice or an in- 
voluntary fantastic taste, pride or vainness, but was 
the legitimate and orderly result of the triple law, 
whose elements are fitness, expression, and correspond- 
ence. The white drapery symbolized, if not my ab- 
solute purity, at least my aspirations thitherward, — 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 57 

(and this explains why all men and w&nen array their 
breasts in white bosoms, frills and laces.) The bandeau, 
the zone, girdle, jewels, all symbolized an affection, as- 
piration or Quality of the inner being ; and as these 
latter change, so also do the former. The law is im- 
perative, because it is a thing of the soul itself, whose 
external manifestations invariably — in the soul- world — 
represent its inward states : moral, religious and in- 
tellectual. 

In the light of this explanation, therefore, no one 
need marvel at the radical changes in my personal ap- 
pearance. We shall throw much more light on the 
general subject when next we treat of the mysteries of 
being. The present undertaking being merely pre- 
fatory, as a matter of course, confines us to the mere 
superficialities of a realm whose vastness exceeds all 
human conception. In reference to the wrinkles of my 
hands, and their sudden disappearance, enough has been 
said ; yet for the information of whoso chooses to profit 
by it, I will merely add here, that as Time only affects, 
man in his outward relations, it cannot, of course, bring 
wrinkles on his features, for souls do not grow old by 
years ; albeit they do grow old by experiences,— without 
reference to duration, but only as to depth and intensity. 
A single week of mental agony will ripen a soul far 
more than would fifty centuries of clock-beats, passed 
free from the sorrows aforesaid. x 

Let it not be forgotten that there are two distinct 
and dissimilar worlds beyond the grave, nor that I had 
rapidly crossed from the first to the second stage of my 
transmundane existence. One of these is the mere ex- 
ternal world of Spirits, wherein a life, analogous to 
3* 



58 DEALINGS WITH THE DE^D. 

that of earth is for a period led by the inhabitants 
thereof. The other is that, concerning the mysteries 
whereof, I am now treating. 

Millions of beings there are who, although disrobed 
of fleshly garments, are yet pilgrims in search of the 
soul-world. The latter is divine and interior, the 
former natural and merely Spiritual. A mai> on earth 
may gaze on the surface of a picture, or mechanically 
read a book, and yet find nothing therein ; whereas 
either of these may lead another person not only into * 
their own beauty-depths, and into the soul of the painter 
or the author ; but they may serve as clues which his 
soul may seize on and follow into realms never even 
imagined to exist by the poet-painter, or the painter- 
poet. So also the mere mortuary fact by no means 
serves as a free ticket or pass into the grand Temple, 
at the mere vestibule of which grim Death lands those 
who take passage in the phantom shallop, -whereof him- 
self is pilot and steersman. The mere post mortem exist- 
ence does not necessarily entitle one to all the privileges 
of the Temple, nor make one a resident of, or even 
spectator of the vrorlds of Soul. True, there will occur 
a change in all, whereby they can pass the mystic ferry ; 
but this change must be worked out from within, and 
in no wise depend upon outside influences ; it must be 
volitional, not mechanical. The ferriage must be paid 
in well-wishing and better doing. The life beyond is 
a real one, compared to which that of earth is a mere 
shadow, and the form of Government is an isonomous 
one ; equal rights, equal laws, impartial justice, ad- 
ministered, not by external agents of an outward power, 
but by the very constitutional delegates from the secret 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 59 

soul itself ; for no justice is so very just as that which 
each soul, by virtue of its own nature, administers to 
itself, and through which its lower becomes subordinated 
to its higher and nobler faculties, qualities and powers. 
And this is the law that keeps many a one from enter- 
ing the sacred penetralia until properly disciplined 
and prepared for the change. 

I wondered at first why these truths w£re not more 
generally known and appreciated by the people, who, 
because they have an intellectual perception of the fact 
of immortality, call themselves " Spiritualists ; " but as 
the veil was slowly drawn away, and I saw that much 
that had to me appeared real, proved now to be but 
seeming ; there was no more marveling. There was, 
still is, and for a long time will be, four sorts of Spirit- 
ualism in the world : First, a mere bodily sensitiveness, 
nervous acuteness, and susceptibility to magnetic 
emanations and impressions, — out of which arises a 
great deal of the stagnant filth and social corruptions so 
prevalent, — the debaucheries and license, and great evils 
which pain so greatly the- hearts of true men and wo- 
men. Second, a Spiritualism of the brain alone ; — a 
cerebral quickening, — a hot-house ripening of faculty, 
which gives rise to much talking, and sometimes leads 
to the discovery of many of the elements of the great 
principia underlying the Harmonead, and prophecies 
the good time that is yet to be. Third, " compact' 
Spiritualism, or that wherein and whereby a certain 
class of sensitives, be they male or female, become the 
dupes of their own folly, and the victims of disembodied 
maniacs, lunatics and self-deluded denizejis of the middle 
state — Spirits who wander on the outskirts of three 



H 



60 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

worlds, without a permanent resting-place in either. 
These have been useful, however, inasmuch as they have 
called, and even compelled attention to phenomena 
which they produce, and which cannot be explained 
away, nor accounted for, save by admitting two things ; 
first, that immortality is a fixed fact ; and second, that 
it is possible to bridge the hitherto impassable chasm 
which divides earth from regions which lie beyond. 
The fourth kind, and truest and best, indeed that which 
only is truely spiritual, is the growing up into a spiritual- 
ized, out of the merely physical selfhood ; and this 
growth of soul necessarily admits the subject of it into 
the mysteries of "being, precisely in accordance with the 
degree of the person's own unfolding. It is the off- 
spring of good resolutions, well and faithfully carried 
out ; ignores pride, talk, lust, hatred, envy, malice, slan- 
der, and all else which characterizes the other three 
sorts. Immortality is to such, not an acquired, but an 
intuitive fact. Such Spiritualists are good, moral, hu- 
mane, charitable, merciful, kind and true ; religious, 
Christian in deed, as well as name ; and such as these 
are never pulling down, but ever building up the Good, 
the Beautiful, and the True £ and when such an one dies, 
his or her stay in the Middle State is very short, for 
they have paid their ferriage, and are speedily intro- 
mitted to the mysteries and grandeurs of the world of 
Soul. 

Such an one is unfolded ; and by this term is not 
meant that state to which a man arrives after packing 
the contents of two or three libraries on the shelves of 
his memory ; by that term is not meant the condition 
of one who has arrived at honor and distinction by dint 



DEALINGS Wim THE DEAD. 61 

of mere acquaintance with learned authorities, and the 
accumulation and piling up of knowledge <5f various . 
common and popular sorts ; for it frequently happens 
that men and women, who are very ignorant of all 
these things, — and who, so far as they are concerned, 
are not " progressed ;; at all, prove on trial to be far 
more " unfolded " than thousands of those who have 
grown gray in the service of Letters, and who have, 
by persistent assiduity succeeded in transforming them- 
selves from human beings into locomotive encyclopedias 
— splendid to look at, interesting to dine with and talk 
to — but cold, unheartful encyclopedias after all. Edu- 
cation is often a mere mechanical mastery of useless 
abstrusities, — coins, which on the social counters jingle 
well, — but which are not over and above current in the 
far-off worlds,— where a boor's earnest prayer weighs 
far more than the ornate, rhapsodical orisons of scores 
of learned pedants, who, to ju(^e them by their lan- 
guage, take (jrod to be a school committee, rather than 
a loving, tender Parent. 

Thus I found true, what had previously been surmised, 
that a person may know but little, yet approach much 
nearer the Divine, than one who has more brain furni- 
ture, with a great deal less heart.\ 

It was revealed to my understanding that the great 
law of Vastation, by whose operation the monad de- 
veloped moss, threw it off, and brought forth something 
better and higher, until at last the conscious point — the 
truly human degree — was, after the lapse of ages, 
reached, did not cease its functions even after the death 
of the body, albeit its mode of action was somewhat 
changed and modified ; for now it was observed by me, 



62 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

that while the soul may, both prior and subsequent to 
death, draw in knowledge from without — inspiration, 
progression, procession — it may also expand from within, 
and enter consecutively domain after doinain in the 
Soul-deeps of its almost infinite being. This is aspira- 
tion, unfolding — development ; and ever will the im- 
mense, the immortal thing, continue to vastate the bad, 
the ill, imperfect and untrue, so long as any of such 
remains to be thrown off, as it has been doing ever since 
the clock of Time struck one upon the bell on Eternity's 
tower ! It will continue the process until that tower 
itself shall topple and fall with hoary age ! 

The figure of an onion, though a homely, is neverthe- 
less a good one, inasmuch as it olfers a familiar illustra- 
tion of the monad ; for, first, there is the two or three 
external skins, after which comes layer after layer, until 
at last we find a center, which center contains an invisi- 
ble, because a spiritaal point, which constitutes the 
germ or seed-principle, containing, latent in its bosom, 
countless acres of onions, that are and are not, at the 
same time — fields of plenty, seeds of mighty harvests, 
which only need the necessary conditions to prove their 
power and develop their capacities. 

Philosophers have long sought, with their crude plum- 
mets, to sound the bottomless abysses of man's immortal 
soul. Spiritualists, in their turn, have tried to do the 
same — aye ! and loudly boasted of their success. Suc- 
cess, forsooth ! Why their lead, even when all the line 
attached thereto was well run out, rested on one or 
more of [the very topmost ledges of the unfathoma- 
ble and vast profound — their weights only lodged on 
the upper crags of one or more of the tiniest moun- 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 63 

tains, whose heads are upreared from the floor of the 
great ocean Soul. Proclaiming man to be a world in 
miniature, they have, in their treatment of him and his, 
not only belied and stultified themselves, but have 
shown that, after all, he was to be classed with " all 
other worms of the dust" — a semi-voluntary automa- 
ton — a skip-jack, to be coaxed, wheedled and driven, 
just as circumstances might dictate and decree. Theo- 
retically, to tliem, he is a God ; practically, a mere ma- 
chine, whose office and function it is to eat, drink, be 
merry, sleep, wake up, labor, and beget his kind — whose 
destiny, in turn, it is to repeat the same identical round, 
with perhaps a few trifling and unimportant varia- 
tions — totally forgetful or unconscious of the fact, that 
when pronouncing him to be a microcosm, they were 
uttering a sentence brimfull of God's everlasting truth. 
Philosophers have a bad habit of saying one thing and 
meaning another ; for while loudly declaring, they never 
yet have fairly believed, that howsoever vast the uni- 
verses without may be, yet all and each of them grow 
diminutive and contracted when compared with those 
that exist within the Soul. Nay, they have never real- 
ized that all that has a being outside of man is met, mas- 
tered and overmatched by an infinite universe from 
within ! 

Crime ! folly ! — what are they ? Philosopher, an- 
swer thou me ! " They are, they are— they are — well, 
I can hardly tell tvhat they really are. 77 I will tell 
you : these things frequently mark the career of the 
1 Progressed 7 man — never that of the developed or un- 
folded one — and in all cases are either the result of 
impulse, Spirit-obsession, or of a bad calculation. When 



64 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

nations merely l Progress/ every jail-yard has its gib- 
bet ; when the people are 'Unfolded/ temples for God- 
worship take their places. Philosophers try to explain 
away all crime and evil, knowing it to be real ; yet at 
the same time treat the doers of ill-deeds as if they were 
not fitter subjects for soul-hospitals than for thumb- 
screws and disgrace. They forget that society gains 
nothing by making a man think less of himself ! In- 
stead of pursuing really reformatory methods with those 
who are vicious or whose souls are sick, they have 
favored the policy of revenge and atonement, and 
adopted the lex talionis instead of the lex justitice — 
as Common Sense, if nothing else, would ever seem to 
dictate, counsel, and approve. 

The Social Harmonead is yet to be. Discord rules 
the age. The human soul is unbalanced. Equilibrium 
and Virtue come together. By-and-by, Philosophers 
will realize this truth. Men who gaze intently on the 
wonderful perfection of the outer Harmonead, and 
realize its vast excellence, constantly fail to recognize 
the fact that the innei\ world of man would be the same 
were but Charity and kindly dealing, in thought as well 
as act, to take precedence of Suspicion and Punishment. 
As yet the world is but a baby-realm. There are no 
real saints therein at present, for the reason that the 
currents of the time are not adapted to the floating of 
that species of craft ; nor will the social gardens pro- 
duce that sort of fruit until it is well subsoiled by char- 
ity plows and common sense. At present, probably but 
few men or women live on earth, no matter how abste- 
mious they may be, nor how correct and staid their de- 
portment, but in whose hearts lurk many a thistle seed, 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 65 

ready to spring up and pester the world whenever bad 
conditions shall call them into active life '"; nor can there 
be a pure saint, until every one of these seeds shall be 
deprived of life. Then, when this is done, no matter 
what the soil may be, it can produce none but beauty- 
laden forms of excellence. (When the great truth is 
made apparent to the people, that the greatest sin a 
person can possibly commit — taking the future as well 
as the present into the account — is the sin against him 
or herself,} society will rapidly purge itself of wrong, 
aud there will be fewer bad memories to haunt and ter- 
rify them after life's troublous drama shall end, and far 
fewer leaden-hued pictures be. reflected from the mirror- 
floors of the world of Soul. 

Wealth, the possession of riches, is, on earth and in 
all human society, the universal passport to honor and 
distinction. This is one of the fallacies of man, and the 
greatest ; but the good deeds done to the neighbor and 
the self are hereafter changed into a kind of coin read- 
ily current in the lands beyond the tomb. 

Now no one thing yet unaccomplished is more certain 
to come to pass, than that this lesson will yet be learned 
by the people. When it is mastered, there will be far 
less strife tor the honors and emoluments of office, and 
the universal cry will be, ' Whom can we get, who shall 
we persuade to be our Ruler, President, or King?' 
1 Who can we employ to fill those offices T instead of 
1 Yote for me !' as now. Mankind on earth do not, as 
we of the Soul-world, seek for joys that are pure, and 
purely human, too ; they do not, as we, drink from cha- 
lices at whose bottom no dregs are found after the ruby 
wine has been sipped. Alas, no ! .but, instead, they 



m 

66 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

seek for such joys as are absolutely sure to leave a sting 
behind, and Repentance, Agony and Remorse are the 
terrible triplet they are obliged to nurse, for O how 
long ! This is moral and spiritual suicide — so far as 
super-mundane joys are concerned — suicide, slow but 
sure ; and such souls, on entering the Middle State, are 
poor, and thin, and lean, and powerless, for deeds or 
thoughts either good or great ; and memory reflects 
back but few, if any pleasant images, but, in lieu there- 
of, presents for inspection and as food for contempla- 
tion, an array of barren mountains, fierce "whirlpools, 
crags toppling over into dreadful darkness, beetling 
cliffs, from whose bald summits the vulture >and the 
night-owl shriek and scream. No pleasant pasture lands 
begem the picture — no sweetly-singing rivers of de- 
light — but only things of wierdness,rage and fury, set as 
centers into pictures representing boisterous and tem- 
pestuous seas, cold and dreary ice-islands, or desert 
sands which swallow up the sunshine, the moisture and 
the rain, but never smile with a single green or lovely 
thing. These are symbols and similes of the Soul's 
states, and are the legitimate and inevitable out-crea- 
tions of itself ; but, thank God ! not of its inner deeps, 
else the universe might well run mad, and every living 
thing curse its God and — die. True it is that none of 
these frightful things are the results of the natural and 
unbiassed choice of any human creature, yet they are 
none the less real in the second stage of existence, for 
the reason that Destiny forever compels a man to be 
himself. Sooner or later he will bring himself volun- 
tarily to acknowledge, bow, and bend before it ; and 
the instant that he does so, the grand Vastatory law 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 67 

comes into play, and he slowly emerges from Hell, and 
takes the road to Heaven ! 

So far in human history on the^earth, the Devil has 
proved a failure — utter, total; and complete. Not so 
Evil. This latter works out its mission well, even if it 
does no more than to convince man that his only, best 
and truest friends are himself and the Infinite God 
whose child he is. 

In the higher realms, to which mankind is destined, 
his actions are never the result of an applied force from 
outside himself ; but when voluntarily submitting to 
the pressure from within, he is irresistibly led from bad 
to better, and from better to Best. * Beaching this 
point, he no longer rebels — not against God, but against 
himself — his higher, nobler, better nature— but, giving 
up all of mere self, begins to desire nothing so much as 
to love and be loved, to serve God and minister unto 
others' good — and at last finds himself standing in the 
Door of the Dawn, having emerged from the Hades of 
his own and others 7 making, and stepped into his house 
not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens — house- 
spheres such as I have partially described, prepared for, 
and in, and of him, from the foundations of the Ages — 
houses which are indeed builded upon very pleasant 
spots, on sunny glades and love-tinted hillocks on God's 
Eternal Domain — houses, too, which men often refuse to 
enter and occupy till after the lapse of years of misery 
spent in the horrid caves and unsightly huts dug and 
builded by themselves. 

All these things flashed in upon my soul, as I stood 
gazing into the mirror on the floor, and upon the vivo- 
graphs of Memory gliding by upon the walls, in which 



68 DEALINGS WITH THE BEAD. 



every event of my life, no matter how trivial, was 
clearly represented. Not a good thought or deed, no 
matter how private — not a single sin, no matter how 
venial — but was there reproduced for my inspection and 
instruction — moving, with all their foregone accessories, 
across the walls of that magic globe. They were living 
icons, perfect rescripts, of all foredeeds, thoughts, ac- 
tions — and transcripts, all too faithful, of the volumes 
of my memory. Soon all this passed along — the last 
scene being that of my death within the chamber of the 
house upon the hill. Scarcely had it vanished, whither 
I knew not, than a blank section moved acrpss tk§ line 
of vision, almost instantly succeeded by a Phantor&ma 
still more wondrous and imposing. Instead of repre- 
senting myself alone, this second picture revealed the 
results, both direct and indirect, of my personal influ- 
ence upon others, whether exerted in a domestic, social, 
or professional capacity. I could not help being par- 
ticularly struck with one tableau, which, as it embodies 
a moral lesson, I will here stop to briefly describe : 

I saw, myself in the act of warm disputation with a 
friend, on a subject well calculated to elicit the best 
thought of the best thinker. I had the right of the 
argument, and this was so apparent that my friend with 
whom I was arguing lost temper. At the time of the 
occurrence, I took but little note of the matter, not 
deeming it a subject of very great importance. Now, 
however, I saw, what surprised me greatly, that this 
mental excitement had reacted physically, and, in run- 
ning its course, brought on a slight inflammation of the 
brain — a' sort of slow but positive fever, which, while 
not confining the patient, yet affected both soul and 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 69 

body to a great extent, and so modified the cerebral 
constituents, that the immortal soul therein dwelling 
for a season, could not thereafter manifest itself as for- 
merly. I now realized that chemistry, in the higher 
sense, was an efficient force in the human mental, as 
well as in the material economy — that changes in the 
physical cells of the brain could be made by intellectual 
excitations, and that these in a great measure affect 
the mental and psychical operations, even to the extent 
of a complete bouleversement. In, consequence of the - 
change effected in the individual alluded to, projects 
of various kinds, previously determined on, had to be 
given up — for which reason the entire current of a life 
was turned completely ; nor is it for me to say whether 
greater good or ill will be the ultimate or final result — 
for the reason that as yet I can neither see the origin 
nor end. These are only known by the Infinite One 
above us and beyond. Suffice it, therefore, to observe, 
that had I known what weight inhered in words, whether 
lightly, harshly or kindly spoken, especially to the sen- 
sitive and susceptible natures of many of earth's pil- 
grims, never would I have uttered a syllable without 
well weighing the possible consequences thereof ; espe- 
cially would I have kept back all which bore the slight- 
est resemblance to heat or anger. 0, what a wondrous 
thing is a human soul ! Until now it was not clear to 
me that,, by virtue of both a static and dynamic law of 
the universe, human happiness is derivative, and ever 
depends upon the amount and kind bestowed upon or 
imparted to another. The law is dual, that is, it works 
both ways ; for even as a man or 'woman finds joy in 
the act of causing or of bringing joy to others, so also 



70 DEALINGS WITH THE BEAD. 

the misery and woe which A may cause B, C, I) and 
E to feel or undergo, not only reacts upon A by force 
and virtue of the great Sympathia, but it is utterly im- 
possible for A to be happy, so long as the least trace of 
his or her action maavaise remains with B, 0, D, E, P 
and G. Nor is this all ; for if these last persons act 
badly toward H, I, J and K, said actions being the 
legitimate result of A 7 s, originally, upon B, C, D, E, P 
and G, then A cannot escape the consequences, no mat- 
ter how distant or in whatever corner of God's universe 
he may be, or in whatever crevice of the great creajtion 
he may seek to hide. A wave or ray of agony from B, 
C, and the rest of the alphabet, will finally reach him ! 
A lash from the great whip of conscience or remorse 
will fall on him, when rocks and mountains, though 
heart-implored, refuse to. Until the law of compensa- 
tion is satisfied, he shall never fail to hear, peeling into 
his soul from the lacerated hearts of others, the terrific 
sentence : ' Thou art the man ! thou hast done it ! Pay 
what thou owest F If the reflections shall prove to 
have been good instead of evil, then the words which 
shall be heard will be : ' Even as thou hast done it unto 
the least of these, my servants, thou hast done it unto 
me. Well done, thou good and faithful servant ! enter 
thou into the joy of 'thy Lord ! Take up thine abode in 
the mansions of bliss, prepared from the foundations of 
the world ! 7 The coin of heaven is ever stamped with 
the seal of a' person's deeds, be they good or evil. 

This soul-law is well illustrated by an anecdote which 
I remember to have heard related prior to my entrance 
into the wonderful realm, whereof I now found myself 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 71 

a denizen. The story was related by a male friend. 
Said he : 

" Many years ago, when a mere lad of ten or a dozen 
years, I lived in the Metropolis of America, where also 
I was born. One day several lads of us were playing 
at ball in a street then called ' Chapel/ but since known 
as West Broadway. In throwing the toy at one of my 
playmates, it missed him, and crashed through the win- 
dow of a shoe-mender's shop, the proprietor of which be- 
came greatly enraged, and in a paroxysm* of fury not 
only cursed and swore most dreadfully at us, but also 
seized the offending ball, and threw it on his burning ' 
grate ; we, poor mourners, in the mean while looking 
down into the fiery grave of all our sport. Tears, ex- 
postulations, and entreaties were all so much wasted 
breath, and proved utterly unavailing. The ball, un- 
fortunate ball, was irrevocably doomed to an igneous 
tomb ; nor could all our prayers, joined as they were, 
to abundant offers on our part, and that of several 
pitying on-lookers, to doubly pay the cost of the de- 
molished glass, soften the^ obdurate heart of the revenge- 
ful cobbler in the least degree. Burn that ball he swore 
to ; utterly consume it he vowed to, and most religiously 
he kept his promise. 

The ball was burned, but as the smoke of its sub- 
stance, — the remains of two worn-out stockings and 
an india-rubber shoe, — and of our torment, went up 
towards heaven, there accompanied it a most dire threat 
of vengeance from out my boyish heart, — proud, indig- 
nant little human heart, which then, for the first time, . 
swelled almost to bursting with vindictiveness and rage. 
In my paroxysm of fury I swore a vendetta more fierce" 



72 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

and terrible than that of the Orsini against their mortal 
foes, the Borgias of sunny Italia. I resolved to kill, 
slav, totally extinguish the whole race of cobblers, — 
but that one in particular. His doom was, to be killed, 
slain, cut to pieces, remorselessly and cruelly murder- 
ed, after which his soul was to be eternally damned, 

. roasted, stewed, broiled and grilled for evermore, upon 
the gridirons of the infernal pit — all for burning a six- 
penny ball ! For ten long days and nights I pondered 
on the subject, and sought to contrive means whereby 
to carry out my philanthropic design. Having heard 

' and read of battles, bloodshed and gory fields of human 
slaughter, wherein he who did the most murder was 
the greatest hero ; having heard and read of human 
butchers and butchery, my heart hacf turned from the 
one, and I shuddered at the picture of the other. Now 

.however, all these images of horror returned. I still 
hated them, but of all others, it seemed to me that that 
ball-burning shoe-mender was the most atrocious fiend 
that ever trod the earth. In my boyish frenzy I vowed 
he was an ogre, giant, demon, and all else that was 
horrible and bad, to rid the earth of whom would be 
doing an especial and particular favor to God, nature 
and human kind. Amidst all the scourges and pests 
who had ever trod the earth from Ghengis Khan to 
Lord Jeffries, not one loomed up who was half so cri- 
minal, half so deserving of the intensest scorn and 
maledictions of the human race, as was that unfortunate 
and guilty cobbler. We resolved that he must die, 
and die by powder and fire ; but in consequence of the 
£ict, that the explosive grains were rather unpopular 
just then, while both guns and pistols, fire-crackers, 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 73 

double-headers, and torpedoes, being strictly prohibited 
by — the constable round the corner, — we concluded to 
defer the execution of the malefactor till the ensuing 
Fourth of July, then a matter of some eight months dis- 
tant. But at last, it came. Our revenge had slept, 
but was by no means extinguished. The ogre dwelt in 
the same place still. The hour for dire retribution 
drew fearfully near — and at length arrived. The cob- 
bler's doom was sealed. Our maleficent congress — 
boys, all under twelve — had resolved that he must die, 
then or never, so far as we were concerned. Pistols 
and powder being still as scarce as ever, we assailed 
the enemy with a large string of ignited Chinese crack- 
ers, in lieu of guns and bullets — articles de campaign — 
not procurable, owing to the limited resources of our 
combined exchequer. 

We suffered a defeat — a rout, total and complete — 
nor did one of us escape what*the cobbler called a 
i welting/ for our shoulders tingled many an hour there- 
after from the application of a strip of lea£her ; wielded 
by the stalwart right arm of the vindictive man. Now 
it so 1 happened that, nearly opposite the scene of this 
farce, there stood a tall flag-staff — c Tom Riley's Fifth 
"Ward liberty pole' it was' called — and with this pole is 
associated, not only the moral of my story, but also one 
of the most singular experiences ever undergone by a 
human soul, while incarnated in a tabernacle of flesh 
and blood, nerve and sinew, muscle and matter. After 
mutually smarting from the application of the cobbler's 
1 welt,' we took counsel and refuge beneath the liberty 
pole aforesaid ; and_the last I remember of the affair is, 
that, while gazing upon his triumphantly retreating 
4 



74 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

figure, it struck me that the very quintessence of my 
felicity on earth "would be achieved could I have the 
exquisite joy and unsurpassable pleasure of hanging 
him to the weathercock on the summit of that flag-staff. 
This would be to me — to us, a very heavenly state in- 
deed. And so I hung him, in fancy, to the north cor - 
ner of the vane, enjoyed his imaginary struggles for a 
while, and then went home. * * * * * * Years 
passed. My childhood's troubles were forgotten, and 
man's estate had come, with all its griefs, cares and 
strifes, and, from a student of revenge, I became one of 
the science of Forgiveness. During one of these latter 
years I became interested in the question, ' Has man a 
death-surviving soul* or not? ? and to the solution of this 
great problem I bent the entire force and energy of my 
mind, not hesitating to make all sorts of experiments 
that held out a hope or possibility of my reaching a defi- 
nite conclusion in reg&rd to the subject. In pursuance 
of this grand object I one day made an experiment 
which, in some respects, was but too successful ; it was 
not by means of drugs or potions, magnetism or spiritual 
circles. At the end of one of these experiments I became 
totally lost to the external world, its surroundings and 
influences, and found myself in the world of Spirit — in the 
midst of a vast and boundless Chaos, in which no sound 
struck upon me save the rattling of the bones of a huge 
and ghastly skeleton which swayed and swung to and 
fro in the bleak air, from the point of a vane on the top 
of a vast pole, itself the very spectre of the one on which 
mentally, I had hung my mortal foe. 

Attracted irresistibly by the ominous sounds, I turned 
my gaze toward it, when instantly the horrible, ghastly 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 75 

thing became endowed with life and speech — ventri- 
loquial power of speech — and it shrieked into my startled 
ears these terrible, these ominous words : ' Wretch, look 
upon the work of thy hands ! Here didst thou place 
me in the years now gone, and here have I hung and 
swung ; here must I hang and swing during many and 
many a coming age ! Gaze upon this cord — look on it ; 
think of it— -placed around my neck by you — by you ! 
The flesh once with these bones which now rattle in 
your ears — your ears! — has, by the elements, been 
changed and dissolved into atoms — do you hear ? — into 
atoms finer than the flecks of light in a sunbeam— aye, 
finer than the scintillations of yonder star, the point of 
the buckle of Orion's belt ; and that star is an eye, and 
it watches you — watches you ; and, as you see, is the 
only one in your horizon from zenith to nadir. That 
star is the sentinel appointed by Him to see to it that 
you escape not the doom — the doom! Ha ! ha ! ho! 
ho ! Yes, it was I — i" who burnt your ball, in revenge 
for which you burnt your soul ! — you burnt your soul ! 
Ha ! ha ! ho ! ho ! And that soul must burn, and keep 
on burning, in its own self-kindled flames, until their 
fiery tongues shall have licked your joints — jour joints, 
your marrow — your very marrow, and keep licking 
them until — • 

1 In God's name, what and when V I tremblingly in- 
quired. And from between the chattering, clattering, 
horrible jaws of that ghastly thing there hissed back 
this answer : ' Atom by atom, the elements whereof my 
body was formed shall once again cleave to these bare 
bones ; and, of their own volition, persuaded thereto by 
the spectacle of thy agony, softened by thy prayers, 



76 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

quit their gambols in space, their festive sport amongst 
the star-beams, and re-arrange themselves into the origi- 
nal flesh, and blood, and nerve, and cartilage, and lymph, 
and muscle, wherewith these bones were clothed once 
upon a time in the dead years of an infinite Pastf 
1 But/ I cried, as the sweat of agony seemed to ooze even 
out of my spectral cheeks, ' there must be some mistake. 
The crime imputed was never committed b^ me. I 
never slew you, nor any one else. True, I remember 
you, but I only 7 — ' Wished and willed to do it !' shrieked 
my tormentor, from the gibbet ; ' and%hatever the soul 
strongly wills is done, so far as human responsibility is 
concerned.% You wished and willed me to be here ; and 
here I am, by virtue of a great and mighty law. Hast thou 
not heard the law laid down, by the sufferer of Calvary, 
" Whoso looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath al- 
ready committed adultery in his heart," and must pay the 
penalty therefor ? And thickest thou that this is the 
only application of the great law of justice and com- 
pensation ? Fool ! know that thy crime is just as great 
as if thou hadst, with thine own fingers, put the cord of - 
murder about my neck— about my neck ! The crime- 
thought is as great as the crime-act. So it is with thee, 
thou murderer! (Man is judged from the desires and 
motives of his heart, whether these be for good or ill, 
and never from or for his act alone ; for the reason that 
actions are often the result of an instantaneous impulse, 
external pressure and circumstance ; but motives are • 
the creatures of will, the perfect offspring of desire P 
I groaned in agony, an agony so great that it burst the 
bonds of sleep, and I awoke from that which was not 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 77 

all a dream. It was an awful lesson, and taught me 
how to become a wiser and a better man. 7 * 

Such was the terrific experience of my friend, and I 
feel that I need say no more on a point so well, so very 
forcibly illustrated. * * * * * * 

Still the phantorama glided past upon the wall, re- 
vealing many a new mystery, and showing me that 
every human being is more # or less responsible for the 
result of personal influence exerted upon others. 

Much rare and valuable knowledge flowed in while I 
stood there, in the center of the magic sphere, gazing on 
the second vivorama, or living picture, delineating the 
results of my influence on others. Many and many a 
strange scene passed athwart that globe's interior ; and 
I saw not only what the result of my influence had been, 
but also what would Jiave resulted had my action, in a 
given instance, been different from what it really was. 
Thus, I saw that had a cross word been spoken to a 
child, whom I had endeavored to soothe by kindness, 
that child would have been led to restrain himself, in- 
stead of, as happened, taking advantage, and attributing 
my complaisance to fear or something akin thereto. I 
saw, on that mystic scroll, the simulacras of every per- 
son I had ever known, and found that there, in the Soul- 
world, people and things passed at their true, and by 
no means at a fictitious value, like men and money do 
on the earth. All mankind are divisible into seven 



* This fearful apocalyptic vision occurred on the night of Feb. 3d, 
1861, and was the means of inducing a train of thought and feel- 
ing in the mind of the person who experienced it, which resulted in 
his conversion from all sorts of philosophism to a belief in the pure 
and sweet religion of Christ the Saviour.— Pub, 



78 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

great Orders, to each of which there are three sub-or- 
ders or classes. I shall speak of the Orders, not of the 
classes. Many of those who, when living amongst 
them, I had ranked with the highest, I now found, in 
this place, where the secrets of all hearts are in very 
deed laid open, really belonged to a far lower plane, 
and, vice versa ; for tnany a civilizee and aristocrat was 
now found to belong to the order of barbarians ; whereas 
not a few of those usually considered low were seen to 
be better unfolded than thousands with loftier preten- 
sions. Will it be credited, I even found the purest vir- 
tue in one whose occupation was harlotry ! Once upon 
a time, long before I passed through death's cold river, 
I was walking through a beautiful grove, hard by my 
dwelling-place, the house upon the hill. It was a gala 
day, and hundreds had gathered there to celebrate the 
noon of summer. Mirth, gaiety and sport ruled the 
hour, and my soul was very glad. 

Amongst the rest who had gathered there, were seve- 
ral females, whose trade was Sin, and who I supposed 
came there for their horrid purpose. How mistaken 
was I ! At that time it did not strike me that beings so 
lost could have a pure thought, or in any way be tempted 
to quit the hot pavements of the city to spend an hour 
in God's great Temple, amidst i,ts living columns — the 
stately forest trees — without mischief and wrong-doing 
in view. I looked upon them, especially her with the 
pale thin lips and large drooping eyelids, with utter 
loathing. And thus I passed them by ; years fled ; 
never again did I think of them — much less that such 
creatures could have aught of goodness in them, or feel 
the need of God's sunshiae, or of a bath in His. pure 



DEALINGS WJTH THE DEAD. 

ocean of fresh air. In life they were forgotten, bu 
now, as that mystic diorama moved forward, I saw that 
very scene in the grove, reproduced in every minute 
detail. There sat the courtezans — there walked I past 
them ; and as she of the large blue eye looked up to- 
ward me, with a mute demand for one sympathetic 
glance — one. kind word — only one kind word — I turned 
heedlessly away ; and in doing so, I now saw that a 
wrong thing had taken-place ; for had I spoken kindly, 
they might have been saved from ruin, so far as the 
world is concerned — utter and complete. Then, when 
it was, alas ! too late, I saw how very easily I might 
have melted and won the heart of the woman with the 
thin pale cheek, and she would have become a minister- 
ing spirit for good to many and many a lost and de- 
graded one. I now saw her antecedents — a young girl, 
a tender, loving daughter — faii^ beautiful and sensitive 
to the last degree. In her home misery reigned — no 
work for the father, no bread for her little sisters, a' 
sick mother, and the storms of winter howling in the 
streets, and the cold wind, sleet-laden, searching for 
nooks and crannies, that it might freeze the little hands ■ 
and make the pale lips blue. 

And then father took to drinking, and the pampered 
servants of the rich lordlings of the great city drove 
her with the large blue eye from their doors ; jind she 
was hungry, very hungry ; and then the foul fiend 
tempted her to accept a handful of silver from — a male ! 
for Men never do such things — things so infernal, so 
hideous, so ineffably mean — in exchange for her body ! 
# * * * j^^ g0 g^Q go j ( j it— again, and again, and 
again ! Great God ! she was obliged to sell it, 'or starve 



80 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

in the midst of the "granaries of Plenty ! Starve her- 
self ? Yes, but not only herself— that were easy — but 
the mother who bore her, in agony — the father, whose 
reason had for a time deserted its throne — the little 
ones, clustering about the scanty fire in the little tin 
stove ; these, all these, must eat or die ! " The Poor- 
house !" A poor refuge indeed ! for although they may 
have been better off therein, would she ? Doubtful ! 
for — well, never mind what ! She sold herself for 
bread ! 

Presently work came, but the stain was on her. She 
had run down a declivity so steep that she could never 
clamber up again, unless some friendly hand be stretched 
forth to help her. And such hands are very scarce. 
And now I saw what good might have been done, in 
the days gone by, had I " only thought." 

This scene passed acr<^s the walls of my sphere ; and 
then there came after it a large blank space, and this 
taught me that it indicated that some where in my life 
there had been a corresponding omission. " What can 
it have been?" Scarce had this query been framed 
ihan there appeared a picture, which need not be de- 
scribed, but the sum of whose teachings may briefly be 
stated thus : I had never married — had never been 
hailed by the dear titles i; Wife " and " Mother." I 
had therefore failed in the one supreme womanly duty. 
Nor can any soul be fully filled with joy who neglects 
those great commands of God and Nature. Children are 
the crowns of Heaven ; nor can any one — man or 
woman — taste the serener and the sweeter joys of Be- 
ing, who has failed to love and be loved, wed and be 
wedded ^ for this is one and the chiefest of means 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 81 

whereby the soul becomes mellowed, and fit for higher 
uses in the Soul-home. For these reasons, my joys, 
though great, were not equal to what they might have 
been ; and yet, take it all in all, provided the entrance 
into the upper land is made with a clear and healthy 
conscience and a fair record be left behind, no sense of 
clearness, lightness and joy can equal that which is ex- 
perienced subsequent to the first awakening after Az- 
rael's decree has severed the marriage between matter 
and soul. The Senses ! Roses emit sweet odors, grateful 
to the nostrils ; yet not all the perfumes of the Gulistan 
is worth one inhalation of the celestial aroma in which the 
spirit of the good man or woman floats when once fairly 
over the barriers which separate the worlds. Color ! 
I never knew the music , of hues before I passed away — 
never conceived of the sublime mysteries, nor realized the 
great glory whose templ^ is the chalice of a flower. 
Touch ! Ah, what language, what pen, what tongue 
can describe the deep raptures of a soul, when God's 
sublime atmosphere first laves the immortal being ! The 
highest, keenest nerve-joy the body can experience must 
be very, very dull and tame in comparison ; and so on 
through the Sense-gamuts of Earth and the hyper ones 
of Spirit. Yet only the good enjoy these pleasures. - 
Sin and pollution, whether of thought or overt act, de- 
tract from the senses and susceptibility to pleasure in 
both worlds alike ; and so absolutely true is this, that 
sin and folly ought to be shunned by the people, if for 
no other than the selfish desire of being happy from 
oneself. It is better to live right, die right, and be 
right after death, than it is to purchase transient pleas- 
ures on earth by drawing too largely on the bank of life, 
4* 



82 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

to find one's drafts dishonored at the counters of the 
world above. Suicides and voluptuaries are on an 
equality up there. Both are only half-men, half-child- 
ren, half-women ; nor can they taste of the higher rap- 
tures, unless they grow to holiness. 

After a while there ceased to be any more pictures, 
and I became aware of the fact that an unseen force was 
at work on the outside of the globe, evidently endeavor- 
ing to break it down, or in some way force a passage 
through its walls. What, this something could be, was 
a mystery, just so long as I vehemently desired to know, 
which of course I, like others under similar circum- 
stances, did. I could not, while thus endeavoring, ob% 
tain my desire, and therefore I naturally began to wish 
that Nellie or the old man would come, because, in 
spite of my matchless surroundings, I felt quite human 
in the midst of Spirituality^and the sight even of an- 
other than myself would have been a solace and a conso- 
lation. No sooner had my mind placed itsejf upon a 
new object, than I made. two new and important dis- 
coveries : First, that loneliness or solitude is one of 
the most terrible punishments to which either God or 
man could ever possibly condemn a sinful human being. 
God pity the lonely man or woman ! 0, it is very 
dreadful to be compelled to exist alone !— and there are 
thousands who walk the great world's streets, who move 
along . in the very midst of a Solitude, as deep, silent 
and fearful as that which prevails in Zahara's desert 
wastes, where human footfalls never disturb the awful 
stillness of the hour. There are those who travel up 
and down the world's highways, upon whose soul no 
glad sound's ever fall, and who appear to be condemned 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 83 

to loneliness, as if they were thus expiating some awful 
penalty as an atonement for great and undreamed-of 
crimes, committed either by themselves in some pre- 
existent state, or by their ancestors when the very world 
was young. There are those who, while $11 about and 
around them are merry and jocund as the bees on a 
May day, are themselves as far removed from the pale 
of human sympathy, and as utterly Alone, as if they 
were shut up in some rock-ribbed Gave in the heart of 
Mont Blanc or the Mountains of the Moon. x O, it is a 
fearful thing to be shut out from the great Sympathia 
whose function is to blend in one the chords of all human 
hearts ! It is a sad fate indeed to be obliged to live 
amidst the clamor and the clang of Discord, when all 
other souls are dancing to the glorious sounds of the 
great Harmonead ; yet many such, aye, far too many 
such there be, wha are thus cut off, shut up, barred out. 
They might have been let in, had the father given the 
mother a smile, a caress, a blessing, at the proper mo- 
ment, instead of a frown, a rudeness and a secret curse, 
as is, alas ! too often the case ; and yet nothing is more 
positively certain than that somebody must answer to 
their own souls, their own consciences, for this most fear- 
ful entailment of misery, loneliness and woe. See ! yon 
der is a woman — a wife — big with a man-child, who will 
ere long see the light ; but she is miserable — is lonely, 
is perchance cursed for becoming — a mother ; and so 
she frets, and mopes, and pines — all the while paining 
to be delivered of her misery and child. At length it 
sees the day, the sun's bright laugh meets no responsive 
smile from its pale, thin, tiny lips. It mopes and grows, 
but is prematurely old at ten years, a man at fifteen, a 



84 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

mournful pilgrim at twenty-five, and an old veteran at 
thirty years ! Who's to blame ? Somebody ! else God's 
justice is, like man's, a mockery ! 

Brother or sister, who readest these pages, wouldst 
thou know one of the grand secrets underlying the con- 
stitution of the great Brotherhood of Crime ? It is 
because man is a social being, has a mortal and invin- 
cible hatred and repugnance to solitude, feels the need 
of associates and sjonpathy, and will have both if possi- 
ble, even though obliged to seek them in the very midst 
of hell itself. Didst thou ever observe that the major- 
ity of spiritual mediums are men and women who are* 
sensitive, lonely, bereft and forsaken ? Well, look 
around, and thou shalt find it so. And these, failing to 
find sympathy on earth amidst their fellows, search for 
it in the awful labyrinths that underlie the tomb ; and 
from the Middle States vast hordes of semi-infernals 
come trooping at the heart-calls of these wretched ones, 
who are thus preyed on by vampires from both Eternity 
and Time ; for embodied wonder-mongers sap them dry, 
and wear them out, while disembodied demi-devils de- 
lude them, until the fair Soul-garden either becomes an 
arid waste, or teems with thistles, thorns, and all un- 
sightly and unseemly things. When such victims cry 
aloud unto God, and keep crying, He will send His 
good angels to comfort, save, cheer and protect. 

Reader, wouldst thou know why millions of women, 
fair, loveable, and good as ever God's sun shone upon, 
yearly rush down the mountain's side and plunge neck- 
deep into the swamps of prostitution and infamy ? It 
is because their human hearts yearn for sympathy, pine 
for love, long for something good and kind ; which fail- 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 85 

ing to discover and obtain where hope has told them 
snch things were, they seek for it, at last, in the horrid 
belly of social damnation. Their motto, ' A short life 
and a merry is better than a long and lonely one ! f tells 
too truly the story of many a poor girl's heart. My 
God, my God, have mercy on the lonely ones ! for thou 
alone knowest that many and many a sin against soci- 
ety and thee is committed, by such and others, not of 
settled purpose of ill-doing, but because urged on by 
sheer despair. Many a crime has been committed from 
a mental aberration caused by the horrors of loneliness. 
Human tribunals take but little, if any, account of a 
^criminal's antecedents and surroundings. He or she is 
judged tooTiarshly, in -the main ; and thus it will be 
until mankind learns a deeper lesson of wisdom than 
yet presides over its courts and councils. 'Only God 
can truly know a heart ; and whilst this fact is so 
clear, it is better to err on charity's side, if error must 
enter into the account at all. 

In prison there is at least a community of punish- 
ment, and the sense of this goes far to relieve the tedi- 
um of incarceration ; for, bad though it be, many a one 
has found it preferable to the perpetual and dreadful 
solitude to which liberty condemned them. 

Why are there such vast numbers of deserted wives' 
and husbands ? — so many ruined and cheerless hearths 
and homes? The answer is : because neither of the 
heads of the household has even dreamed that the com- 
panion had rights which the other was bound to re- 
spect ; and the greatest of these rights, and the one 
most disregarded, is the right of being loved by that 
-other— loved tenderly, truly, kindly, humanly. The 



86 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

parties to the domestic compact have severally failed to 
realize "what common sense ought to have suggested 
from the first — that human happiness is never direct, 
but is always reflected. When the married find out 
this great law, and practically apply it, society will 
redeem itself from all hatred and harlotry, license and 
libertinism, free-love and folly, madness, murder and 
meanness. Ah! friendly reader, it is a 'fearful state, 
that wherein a woman's or a man's true and generous 
love and sympathies are driven down and beaten away 
by those to whom they naturally cling. It is hard to 
have their human kindness misconstrued, and to have 
his or her affection crushed by "the heedlessness or lack 
of generosity of those who ought to leap, and hait it 
with all true human thankfulness. God knows that 
there is too little real affection in the world, and it is 
very hard to have that little forced back upon the full, 
true heart from which it was sent forth on a mission of 
goodness. This sort of thing it is that freezes up the 
spirit, and- makes man and woman lonely hermits in the 
very midst of the teeming hives of human life, society 
and effort. 

It is a terrible thing to be compelled to eat your 
own heart— to be forced to consume oneself— to hear 
the harsh, brutal and unfeeling tone, when one should 
listen to the dulcet notes of generous affections ; for 
they freeze and chill the spirit, and warp the very lig- 
aments of Soul. These sad things must be atoned ; 
the vicarious sacrifice must be self-made by the doer 
thereof — persons who unthinkingly tear down and 
wreck their fellows, every soul of whom might be 
builded up. made strong for the Right, and emulous of 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 87 

all great and good and noble thoughts and deeds which 
God's human children have ever done — and all by kind- 
ness, open-hearted conduct and friendly cheer. Heaven! 
how much misery and crime might be ^stayed by one 
kind and loving word ! How many are at this day 
wading through Perdition, as they tread the pavements 
of the world's broad streets, and all for want of one 
kind word ! Wrote Milton : 

" Devil with devils damned 



Firm concord hold. Men only disagree." 

There is much pith in this couplet, which is far from 
being all poetry — that is, if a judgment must be predi- 
cated upon what the worlds have witnessed of warfare, 
robbery, slaughter, and rapine, all along the track of 
ages. Earth is, then, something worse than hell itself ! 
It ought to be better, for hell cannot be purged nor the 
Middle State become pure, until earth is purified, and 
the daily delegations sent across the dark River be of a 
better, purer and nobler mould than now. 

I remember to have dearly loved the Apostles' Creed, 
especially my own rendering thereof ; 

" I belieye in the Holy Ghost ; the Holy Church ; . . 

... the forgiveness of sins ; the resurrection the 

communion of saints ; the life everlasting." Glorious 
creed of glorious fishermen — repeated daily by millions ! 
But do these millions really believe the words so freely 
spoken ? Go ask their conduct in the world's busy 
market places, where human bodies and human souls 
are as so many counters in the scale, — not negro 
bodies and souls, but thos£ of lordly bankers, and mo- 
nied magnates, who serve as waiters in Moloch's tern- 



88 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

pies on the four shores of the two great seas. Pity it is 
that people do not believe their own religious creeds, 
for if they did there would be fewer lonely ones on 
either side of the grave. 
Sung a poet, quite as good, if not so great as Milton : 

If men cared less for wealth and fame, 

And less for battle-fields of glory ; 
If writ in human hearts, ajiame 

Seemed better than in song or story : 
If men, instead of nursing pride, 

Would learn to hate it and abhor it ; 
If more relied ou Love to guide, 

The world would be the better for it^ 

If men dealt less in stocks and lands, 

And more in bonds and deeds fraternal ; 
If Love's work had more willing hands 

To link this world to the Supernal ; 
If men stored up love's oil and wine, 

And on bruised human hearts would pour it, 
If " yours " and " mine n would once combine, 

The world would be the better forit. 

If more would act thej)lay of Life, 

And fewer spoil it by rehearsal ; 
If bigotry would sheathe its knife, 

Till good became more universal : 
If Custom gray with ages grown, 

Had fewerblind men to adore it : ♦ 

If talent shone in truth alone, 

The world would be the better for it. 

If men were wise in little things, 

Affecting less in all their dealings ; 
If hearts had fewer rusted strings, 

To violate their kindly feelings : 
If men, when Wrong beats down the Right, 

Would strike together and restore it : 
If Right made Rightln|every fight, 

The world would be the better for it. 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 89 

Aye ! that it would, and will, brave lover of thy race, 
when more shall live the spirit thou hast breathed. But 
Faith is not yet dead ; Hope still lives in human hearts ; 
Charity is beginning to be a power in the world, and 
these three— blessed three — will yet workout the world's 
salvation. Strong hands, clear intellects, willing minds, 
are all that is needed to develope true human individu- 
ality, a thing of the future ; and then a man and a wo- 
man will pass for the self-displayed value, the intrinsic 
worth manifested by Action. " It is not me they hate 
and ill-use ; it is the fictitious personality they have 
given me. They will not take me as I am, but insist 
that I shall be what themselves desire I should be ; and 
in crushing, slaying, killing this phantom which they 
choose to attach to my name, they are, alas, crushing, 
slaying, killing me !" These words were uttered by an 
almost broken-hearted man ;* they were true, and true 
not only of him, but of many a lonely and sensitive one 
beside. 

In the days when common sense shall reign, the dis- 
eases of the social body will be eradicated, and then 
the loneliness of talent and genius will be exceptional 
to the rule, instead of the reverse, as in these lonesome 
latter years. If men could but realize that every hu- 
man groan echoes up through all the starry vaults, even 
to the eternal throne itself, they would not cause so 
many as they do, especially when they discover that 
every one of these groans must be expiated by the 
causer thereof. 1 If men knew that every pang endured 
by a human being on earth, sweeps like a whirlwind of 

* Paschal, R. 



90 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

agony along the telegraphic lines of infinite space, and 
that not a soul in God's vast domain but must feel the 
effects thereof in accordance with the Great Sympathia 
—■itself the nervous system alike of God, Nature, and 
human kind — they would heartily strive to lessen the 
amount, and banish all anguish and its producing cause 
from their midst. 

The human race is a mighty harp ; touch one string 
rudely, and all the others vibrate; and the finer the 
chord,, the more it responds to the shock. When Jesus 
groaned on Calvary, the pain of his body and soul was 
shared in by every creature beneath God's Infinite 
heaven ; and the agony thrills still go sweeping through 
the worlds, and will, until all mankind shall go its way 
and sin no more. No human body is healthy so long 
as a single atom of disease lurks between the granules 
of a bone, or between the cells of the most unimportant 
viscus ; neither can society be calm, or the race be 
happy on either shore of eternity, so long as one unholy 
man or woman lives to mar the harmony, and be a dis- 
cordant note in the Great Sympathia. Thus we dwell- 
ers of the Soul- worlds are impelled to action in behalf 
of our brethren below, by the first and greatest law of 
the universe-— self-preservation ; for in making man 
abjure his errors and turn toward the Right, we lay the 
surest and firmest foundation whereon to erect the great 
Temple of Purity wherein all alike shall worship God, 
do well, and think no evil. The discovery of this great 
principle of unity, the acquisition of the positive know- 
ledge that every sensation, painful or pleasant, expe- 
rienced by any, even the most distant, low and de- 
graded of the species, was necessarily shared in by all 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 91 

the rest, surprised me greatly ; and from finding that 
the finest nerved and most sensitive were also the most 
unhappy, I was led to infer the existence of a great 
Vicarious law, whose elements were Sympathy, Compen- 
sation, Distribution. True, some may pass through life, 
and apparently escape its action — but not forever. 
God has said substantially, "Bear ye one another's bur- 
dens ;" and borne they must be. Sensitives bear the 
greatest portion of misery, and their fate seems at first 
sight to be a hard one — a life all full of tears, groans 
and sorrows ; yet the law of Compensation is operative 
in all stages, phases, and planes of being : 

" And he who the weariest path has trod 
Shall nearest stand to the throne of God." 

There are seasons when men and women of a certain 
mould, without the least apparent cause, are plunged 
into the very midst of the blackest "barathrum of misery 
and woe, and who ten times a year pass through the 
body of a death too fearful in its agonies to be even 
faintly imagined by those of a different make-up. They 
complain, and are met with the stereotyped : " Fancy ! 
Hypochondrias ! Delusion !" Delusion, forsooth ! Is 
that pale and haggard cheek, that pain-thrilled sea of 
nerve, those drops of almost bloody sweat, that utter 
prostration of soul, a piere delusion ? Will the hypothe- 
sis of diseased nerves, liver, heart or stomach account 
for these things ? To the looker-on of surface, Yes ; 
to the student of the soul and its mysteries, No ! There 
is a deeper cause, a higher power in operation. Will 
the theory of physical disease account for the instan- 
taneous plunging of a man or woman into the deepest 



92 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

anguish who, scarce ten seconds before, were in the enjoy- 
ment of perfect health of spirit, soul and body ? Never ! 
What means the terrible weight of woe which suddenly 
leaps upon the soul of the sensitive ? Whence comes\ 
this ocean of mental pain and half-sense of retribution, 
knowing themselves innocent and spotless of all wrong ? 
I will answer. At that moment some one, somewhere, 
is undergoing all these pangs from apparent cause./ 
/ The wave of pain has gone out, and, like the needle to 
the pole, flies directly to those whose position on the 
plane of the great sympathetic nerve of the universe fits 
them to receive it./ Some one else receives it in turn ; 
but it becomes less intense, degree after degree, until 
at last only a faint and tiny wave reaches the foot of 
the throne. 

" Eloi, Eloi, lamma Sabbacthani!" groaned the dying 
Christ ; and the throes of his agony went pulsing 
through the universal human heart, till the most ma- 
jestic prince of Seraphim quailed with agony. Even 
so, still, as in the days of yore, is operative the same 
great vicarious law. 

When the suffering soul turns itself to God, relief 
comes, but not an instant before. This latter law— for 
it is one — was well known in ancient times, and amongst 
the higher classes of the Orient is so still. It and its 
operation is well set forth by a modern poet of Islam : 

" l Allah, Allah V cried the 'sick man, racked with pain the long night 

through ; 
Till with prayer his heart grew tender, till his lips like honey grew. 
But at morning came the Tempter ; said, ' Call louder, child of Pain ! 
See if Allah ever hears, or answers, ' Here am i,' again." 
Like a stab, the cruel cavil through his brain and pulses went ; 
To his heart an icy coldness, to his brain a darkness sent. 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 93 

Then before him stands Elias ; , says, i if y child, Why thus dismayed ? 

Dost repent thy former fervor ? Is thy soul of prayer afraid ? 

1 Ah !' he cried, ' I've called so often ; never heard the " Here am I ;" 

And I thought God will not pity ; will not turn on me his eye.' 

Then the grave Elias answered, ' God said, Rise, Elias ; go 

Speak to him. the sorely tempted ; lift him from his gulf of woe. 

Tell him that his very longing is itself an answering cry ; 

That his prayer, " Come, gracious Allah I" is my answer, " Here am I." 7 

Every inmost aspiration is God's angel undented ; 

And in every ' my Father I' slumbers deep a ' Here, my child.' f 

I do not say, nor did I discover that all sensitives, at 
all times, are the mystic sympathants of those who suf- 
fer ; for such is not the case. Much suffering comes to 
them from other causes and sources ; yet that a great 
deal of mental agony does come from the source stated, 
I became perfectly convinced. 

The last twenty years, I also saw — by the action of 
a retrospective faculty of my soul, then discovered and 
applied for the first time — has been productive of more . 
misery than any period of equal length since the world 
began : for the reason, among others, that the people's 
nerves and brains are keener, fuller, quicker in action, 
and more alive to sensations than in the years prece- 
dent. The mental and physical culture of the people has 
been such, that not one civilizee in five thousand en- 
joys good health in either department of common hu- 
man nature. Much of the misery extant in the world 
to-day is solely attributable to the extraordinary sensi- 
tiveness now characterizing such vast numbers of peo- 
ple ; and which morbid condition — for there are two 
kinds of sensitives, the natural and the hot-house 
growths, the last of which I now allude to — owes its ' 
origin to — First, A general overworking, of the brain, 



94 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

to the total neglect of the muscular system. Second, Im- 
proper diet, in time, kind and quantity. Third, Heed- 
lessness in clothing, in reference to color, texture and 
amount; carelessness in regard to heat, light, cold, 
sleep, and physical magnetico-electrical influences. 
Fourth, Personal magnetic influences. Fifth, The 
metaphysical nature of modern thought and study. 
Sixth, Irregularity and excess, extending to all things 
connected with human existence, by reason of which 
the funds in the bank of life are exhausted at the very 
time they ought to be most plentiful. I Seventh, Mod- 
ern Spiritualism, which, by reason of its intensity, at- 
tracts and absorbs nearly all human attention, to the 
exclusion of every thing else ; causes people to ex- 
change common sense for ' philosophies 7 not half so use- 
ful ; induces a sort of intellectual fever ; lifts a man above 
the earth ; makes him forgetful of his body, by holding 
up his spirit to his view ; promises to set his feet on solid 
rock, and ends by, as it should, throwing out the fac- 
titious props and stilts whereon he has stood to catch 
glimpses of what lies on the other side, and letting him 
fall back upon his own resources finally. 

All these things, the last included, previous to its 
ultimate effect, have, by inducing morbidness of thought 
and sentiment, principle and feeling, unfitted man to 
either live or die. The result has been, the develop- 
ment of a sensitiveness so acute, that persons are en- 
abled to penetrate the surface of both things and peo- 
ple, and the result of this involuntary inspection is the 
, discovery that there is many a rotten spot in the fair- 
est-looking fruit— many an unworthy motive underly- 
ing the fairest pretence— nothing but duplicity where 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 95^ 

friendship was thought to dwell— lust and passion, un- 
der the guise of esteem and love — and many more such 
unveilings of the seeming, and disclosures of the real. 
This sensitiveness is morbid, but its revelations are, 
alas ! quite frequently too true ; and the effect it pro- 
duces is an inveterate suspicion of all things and peo 
pie, and an utter loss of confidence in the entire human 
race. This is the hidden reason why a certain order of 
those who call themselves Spiritualists are so unhappy 
and discontented ; and it is this also that has suggested 
the ten thousand and ten panaceas for all the ills of 
life now so freely scattered up and down the walks of 
the social world. To this cause is to be attributed the 
thousand mad Quixotic schemes for rejuvenating the 
world — from l Free-love 7 to 'Angel-movements/ * Wo- 
man's Rights' to 'Land Reform. 7 This it is that sepa- 
■ rates people — engulphs thousands in the sea of idle and 
useless speculation — entangles thousands more in the 
meshes of sophistry, under the name of ' Philosophy ' — 
wise and otherwise, "Harmonial 7 / and Harm-only; 
and this it is that makes people lonely, and throngs the 
ways of Earth and Spirit-land with pilgrims of Soli- 
tude, surrounded by millions. 

It is never your boisterous, jolly, rubicund subject 
who reaches the penetralia of things, and who thence- 
forth casts off the world in despair, declares the play 
of life is only a dismal tragedy, and becomes at heart 
a hermit of the misanthropic order. no ! far from 
it ! Such belong to the first or lower orders of men — 
they can find" company anywhere, at any time. Careless 
they, no matter whether it rains or shines ; it's all the 
same to them, whether school keeps or not. Of those 



96 DEALINGS WITH THtf DEAD. 

who receive little, but little is expected. It is your fine- 
nerved people, the really great-hearted man or woman — 
those who pertain to the second or other and higher 
♦orders of mankind — your natural aristocrats of the 
Soul-worlds — when they get there — who on earth suffer 
greatest and undergo the most. 

This general information came to me as I flitted on 
by the home-sides : of those whom I loved, and who, in 
turn, loved me. Loved me ! What a world in a word ! 

Iu the preceding pages I stated that there were two 
draughts of knowledge which came to slake my death- 
less soul-thirst, while I waited and wished for Nellie 
and the old man who went with her. The law of soul 
is this : any question, the answer to whicKcan be com- 
prehended by the asker, may be propounded to itself in 
*the absolute certainty of a correct response, provided 
the knowledge it conveys be adapted to the ends of 
good and use, to either the neighbor or the self. This 
is an integral law of the very being, no matter where 
that being may be located. On earth men are not pure 
nor pi;operly situated, hence it is far more difficult for 
them to elicit the required knowledge, than it is for 
those who are not embodied ; yet the law is as opera- 
tive on the lowest earth as in the highest heaven. In 
accordance with the principle laid down, that which I 
have faintly set forth came to me ; but the second les- 
son, which seemed to be a sequential suggestion of what 
I thought was an attack upon the external wall of my 
inclosing sphere, conveyed- wisdom as well as know- 
ledge, the good of which will be seen by those who 
carefully analyze it. 

My glance now fell full and direct upon the point 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 97 

where the disturbance of the crystalline barrier was 
greatest ; and while wondering if it could withstand 
the effort made by some power on its exterior to breach 
it, or whether it would remain intact until my wished- 
for friends arrived, I began to study its composition. 
It was evidently not material, and yet it was something 
quite as substantial. Among men the surrounding en- 
velope of the body is called the ' odylic sphere *' yet 
odyle is material, therefore this could not be formed of 
that. It was not soul-substance, because it was far 
grosser, and served a greatly inferior purpose. It was 
not spirit, either. Here then was a demand for useful 
knowledge ; nor was it long ere that demand was fully 
supplied ; for it came to j$e that embodied man repre- 
sented God in his threefold nature, Body, Spirit, con- 
scious Soul or Thinking Principle : that each of these 
must essentially differ from the others, and in a scien- 
tific sense be high, higher, and most high ; and that too, 
not by reason of continuity or rarefaction, but by dis- 
parates, and insulations. Now all three exist in, of, 
and constitute the same individual; wherefore there 
must be at least two substances, differing in toto from 
the three primaries, yet of a nature enabling them to 
cling to and connect the principals. What were these 
two substances ? At a glance I saw that the materials 
of a human body gave forth an atmosphere which 
serves to connect it with the life, or materio-spiritual 
part of man, and ties each by soluble links to both the 
material and spiritual worlds. This is the odylic sphere. 
What connects soul with spirit ? The second glance 
revealed to me the fact that every monad, carnate and 
conscious alike, embodied or free, mere monad or devel- 
5 



98 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

oped soul, was surrounded by an atmosphere of its own, 
unique, single, atoniless, homogeneous, and elastic. 
This envelope is very etherial, and is called Ethylle ; 
it connects soul with spirit, and unites all three worlds, 
body, soul, and spirit together, and constitutes not only 
the spheres, but the ' Personal Nebulas/ out of which 
the'immortal spark creates its surrounding sphere or 
world, when disembodied, and whereof it, while in the 
flesh, erects its stately chateaux en espagne — its castles 
in the air. Here was a new solution of a mystery that 
had troubled not only myself, but many a philosopher , 
and- a solution, too, in perfect and strict accordance 
with the principles of the Great Harmonead ; for the 
Nebulous Ocean enclosing thg Spacial Halls of Deity, 
wherein roll the starry systems, is the ethyllic envelope 
of the Eternal One > is the material whereof he, through 
his servants, the Fokces, fashioneth the mighty fabrics 
now floating in the azure. 

Following hard upon the last great discovery, came 
another, not perhaps so sublime, but quite as useful ; it 
was this : The mental effort whose results have just 
been recorded, had the effect of uplifting my soul, and 
firing it with ambition to such an extent or degree, that, 
seeing how little I knew, and how vast the fields of the 
unknown were, I regretted my poor weak human 
nature, and almost hating it, became impatient of re- 
straint, because I could. not take wing, and, flying to 
the Grand Centre, merge my being into that of God 
Himself, and thus become all-knowing, all-Being, all- 
Life. I was beset with the same sin that hurled Luci- 
fer down from the empyreal heights of the vast heaven ; 
and like him too, most bitterly did I regret my daring ; 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 99 

for almost on the very instant that this sacrilegious 
thought took possession of my soul, my mind lost its 
clarity, my vision became dim and misty, my equanimity 
was lost, and was succeeded by a state entirely differ- 
ent — a sort of childliness of feeling. Almost instantly 
my soul lost sight of the magnificent field just opened 
to its inspection, and was forced by a power not then 
understood, to turn completely round, and direct its 
gaze earthward. Resistance being vain, I did so, and 
observed directly opposite the point of attack upon the 
sphereal wall, a window-like opening, through which I 
looked down the vista of a lane of light, bounded on 
either side by an impenetrable amorphous wall. One 
end of this lane terminated on earth, the other in the 
Soul-world ; and from the peculiar nature of the lesson 
shortly conveyed, I became aware of two things : first, 
that neither knowledge nor joy ever flow into the secret 
chambers of the soul, unless the receptacle vessels there- 
in are duly prepared to receive them ; for although 
knowledge may become a thing of memory, yet it can 
only remain stored up like corn in a granary, and never 
become of positive value, or serve as soul-food, until 
that soul itself is in a condition to digest and assimilate 
it. Secondly, there could no longer be a doubt but 
that I was being practically instructed by an invisible 
being of masterly wisdom and accomplishments ; and 
from the nature of the emotions within me, to which 
this thought gave rise, there was but little if any doubt 
that this invisible teacher was the mysterious ' Him ' to 
whom Nellie had so mischievously alluded, when she 
invited me to come with her. 
If a woman is loved, no matter where she be, no mat- 



100 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

ter by whom, or where the lover may be, she knows it 
instantly, without being told of it. It comes to her just 
as naturally as the vapors sail before the summer breeze. 
I knew that somebody loved me ; and that although 
unseen hitherto, that - some one ' was loved by me. The 
telegraph of Affection is swifter and surer than that of 
electric batteries, and every true woman knows it, no 
matter whether she be dead or alive. 

As the sense of this flashed over me, my heart went 
up to God in such a prayer of gratitude as only they 
can feel and know, whose deathless yearnings have been 
fully satisfied. My soul rejoiced in its new tutelage, 
and it praised God for this sense of the presence in 
action, if not in sight, of one who took an interest in 
clearing my pathway to Wisdom's coast, thus early on 
my everlasting journey toward the shores of the Infinite 
Sea.* 

The further end of the lane of light terminated at a 
spot where was being enacted a scene of a drama where- 
in the actors were denizens of three worlds — Earth, 
Soul-world, and Middle State. The lesson taught me 
was, that very often organization, to a great extent, 
governs and determines human destiny. 

Before a vast audience, on a Sabbath night, stood a 
lonely man — one with massive and active brain, but 
thin, weak and 'puny body — therefore an unbalanced 
character. The woman who seven and twenty years 
before had given him birth, had imparted her own sen- 
sitive nature to her child ; while the man through 



* A revelation concerning which will appear in the sequel ; and 
one, too, compared to which, the grandest and most beautiful things 
contained in the present volume, are comparatively trivial. — Pub. 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 101 

whose agency God had incarnated the lonely one, was 
of an ambitious, affectionate, but passionate and passional 
nature. The son thus congenitally biased and tainted 
had grown to man's estate, and from various social 
and other causes, he being a sang melee, had suffered to 
such a degree that his soul was driven in upon itself to 
a great extent ; which, while rendering him still more 
sensitive and morbid, also caused his soul to expand 
knowledge-ward, become wonderfully intuitive and as- 
piring, yet bound up by the affectional nature within 
his own personal or individual sphere. But such souls 
resist this damming up ; hence occasionally the banks 
overflowed, and he became passional ; forgot his dig- 
nity ; was led to believe that whoever said love, meant 
love ; was beset with temptation, and yielded, until at 
last his heart was torn to pieces, and his enveloping 
sphere became so tender and weak, that it could not 
withstand any determined attack thereon ; and thus he, 
like thousands more whose spheres are thus invalidated 
and relaxed, became very sensitive to influences of all 
sorts and characters, and a ready tool and subject for 
the exploitations and experiments of disembodied in- 
habitants of the Middle State. He became a medium ! 
Of course this circumstance and qualification necessarily 
threw him into the society of those who accept the 
modern theurgy. 

In proportion to the self-abandonment and personal 
abnegation, the degree to which the will is vacated, do 
such persons become good mediums. The more im- 
mersed in the theurgic studies and novelties they are, 
the more they lose themselves, and their value ceases 
to be individual, but only representative. In the last 



102 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

sense they inspire a liking in the minds of others, but 
in their former capacity, none so generous as to really 
love and pity them ; for, being perfect automata, sub- 
ject to any and all sorts of influences, they become all 
things by turns, and nothing long ; hence they are ac- 
cused of inconsistency and everything else, by the very 
people, to serve, and amuse, and instruct whom they 
have vacated themselves, and consented tacitly to be 
drained of the last drop of man and womanhood by 
harpies and vampires from both sides of the grave. 

The man before me had been guilty of this supreme 
folly, and, like many a score of others, had failed to 
realize that no man or woman can ever be loved alone 
as the representative or official, but only as man or wo- 
man ; nor that the more one merges him or herself in 
an office, the more one sinks the individual in the re- 
presentative, the less are their chances of being either 
loved or respected. This is one of the reasons why 
mediums are, as a class, unhappy and discontented, al- 
ways craving love and sympathy for their own sakes, 
and never getting either. As mediums and speakers, 
they have friends and admirers by the hundred ; but 
let their gift be lost, or themselves be demented or 
driven into some silly act, and, lo ! the ■ friends' drop 
off like rain from a roof. Of course, there are those 
who will deny this, but it is true, nevertheless, and will 
remain so, until these sensitives learn the lesson of self- 
conservation, and exchange the passive for the active 
mediumship —the blending for their automacy. 

Let it be observed, that every human being is sur- 
rounded with an atmosphere* emanating from them- 
selves, and that these enveloping auras are charged 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 103 

by the man or woman with all the qualities, good or 
.bad, pertaining to the individual. Thus, a person's 
sphere m^y be full of snakes, (figuratively speaking), 
asps, spiders, toads, and all manner of foul, vile, and 
venom-meaning things ; while, at the same time, the 
speech and external conduct of these same persons may 
be of the blandest kind. Now no sensitive can long 
associate with such without the imminent danger of 
foul contagion ; which, to the extent that it affects them, 
is insanity. Let one of them be in company, pure, 
good, honest and true, and they will be the same ; let 
them mingle with Atheists, Harmonialists, Infidels, Free 
Lovers, Catholics, Protestants, Philosophers, Scientists, 
Christians, no matter whom, and straightway they be- 
come tinctured with corresponding sentiments and opin- 
ions. Nor is this all ; for people from the transmundane 
worlds are attracted to persons of corresponding senti- 
ments, as well as to those who, not so, are yet magnetic 
sensitives, and most gladly avail themselves of the pres- 
ence of such, to give forth their opinions on everything 
in general and nothing in particular. This explains 
why a certain class of mediums blow hot and cold as 
the days go by ; for scarce an hour in the week are they 
properly themselves, but nearly all the time are repre- 
senting somebody else, either in or out of the body, to 
whose magnetism they have ingloriously succumbed. 

I was speaking of spheres which encompass individ- 
uals. They, as all other things in the great Harmonead, 
are rhythmical. Men and their spheres, like musical 
notes, are of varying quantity and value. Some are 
whole notes, double notes, halfs, eighths, sixteenths, 
thirty-seconds, sixty-fourths, and so on. The last 



104 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

four sorts are plentiful ; the first three are rather scarce. 
The last can never approach the value of the first, al- 
beit they will reach to heights and values infinitely be- 
yond where they may chaneo^|p \e at present ; but 
when they reach the point now occupied by notes one, 
two, and three, these latter will have attained a vastly 
higher place on the infinite scale. Nor is this all ; for 
the law of physical gravitation has its correspondent 
in the psychical realm. A stone let fall from a height 
reaches the ground at a constantly accelerating rate of 
speed, which speed is itself determined by the greater 
or less amount of density and weight contained within 
a given bulk. Thus a cubic inch of cork will be longer 
on the journey than a corresponding cube of solid steel. 
And so with the human soul. A, B, and C, being more 
unfolded at the start than E, F, and G, by reason of 
better antecedents and conditions, will, for all eternity, 
widen the distance at first separating them. To re- 
turn. The human notes, (and those of spheres), like 
their correspondents of the musical staff, and of color, 
are governed by a law of their own. A perfect human 
society would be perfectly melodious and harmonic, for 
the reason that every individual would fill his or her 
proper sphere, and to which they are constitutionally 
fitted and adapted. Illustration : The sphere of A is 
sympathetical, and accordant with and to that of C and 
E, though not with B and F (the law of thirds and 
fifths), but these latter will accord with other notes, 
with which also A can assimilate perfectly, and thus 
the entire human scale can affinitize, and would, were it 
not that many uncongenial notes are huddled and jum- 
bled together in that utter distraction and confusion 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 105 

called Society. ' The sole cause of all the dissatisfaction 
and discord in the world is to be found in the fact, that 
human notes, like musical ones, often occupy wrong 
places on the leger lines of being ; and all that is need- 
ed to set them right is not, as many world-savers imag- 
ine, a complete destruction of the existing system, but 
merely a little judicious transposition, to be effected by 
the great transposer, Common Sense. 

As I gazed through the lane of light upon the man 
before the audience, I saw that he, like others, was a 
good note, capable of filling an important place in the 
Harmonead, but he was far from being in the right 
spot, and for two reasons ; one of which was a too vio- 
lent ambition to know mysteries beyond him, and to 
change sinners into saints by eloquent speech ; hence 
he, like myself a few moments before, became impatient, 
the result of which was a self-doom to lower planes of 
thought, act and observation. I found that he was un- 
successful also from another cause. Believing himself 
to be right ; that his knowledge was real ; that his in- 
tuitions were reliable ; and, knowing that many fields 
lay open before his soul for exploration which were 
sealed to others, his spirit grew restive from neglect, 
and the lack of attention he thought his truths demanded ; 
and, from the hight of power, he fell to abjectness, because 
he could not, would not pander to the popular taste and 
fancy. This last was a ' sin' in the right direction truly ; 
but one that took many a mouthful of bread from his 
wife and little ones, who had been well fed, clothed and 
cared for, if the spirit of pride had given way to policy, 
imposture and craft ; three counterpoints which would 
have brought out, set off and relieved certain beauties 



106 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

whose effect would have been ' Popularity' below, but 
regrets, deep and bitter, in the Soul-world. Fool was 
he, or was he not ? for refusing to ring the dull changes 
suited to the edification and advancement of so-called 
1 Philosophers and Reformers/ people who hold Jesus 
up to ridicule, and speak of God as "The chap supposed 
to dwell beyond the stars !" No ! His true place was as, 
the center of a few prayerful souls, and the wielder of 
the pen for God's sake, instead of being the mouth-piece 
and oracle of and for those, who next day would not 
only forget, but previously curse him for his pains. 

It came to me that such is the fate of nearly all that 
class of persons who cultivate spiritual acquaintances at 
the cost of loss of will and complete self-sacrifice. 
These people, at best, are only the ephemera of the age, 
and well it is that such is the case. They are sneered 
at, vilified, scandalized, and traduced — sapped of the 
last drop of vitality, and then exultingly laughed at for 
being such fools ; and when the days of hardship come, 
but very few of those for whom the tremendous sacrifice 
has been made, will go to their relief. In fact these 
human-looking and humane-talking people can stand the 
self-immolated victim's grief and sorrow very well in- 
deed. The rising tide may engulph the lonely ones, 
and not a hand of them all be stretched out to save. 
True, such conduct is in strict accordance with the way 
of the world, but it is a very bad way, and those who 
follow it will pay for their folly in the coming ages. 

Instead of using these unfortunates in this manner, 
the true motto and resolve of every one should be : 
' It may be that God or Destiny is working out some 
deep and instructive problem through that man or 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 107 

woman, for the world's best good. It is well to be on 
the safe side, and therefore best to treat them tenderly 
and kindly j for it may happen that it shall be said to 
us hereafter : 'Even as ye have treated the least of 
these, my servants, ye have also treated me f It will 
be pleasant to know, in the upper worlds, that you have 
dried some tears and bound up some bleeding wounds 
in the lower ones." 

Thus I stood and viewed, at one glance, both cause 
and result. The man's body was haggard, his spirit 
very, very weary, and the enveloping sphere was liter- 
ally torn into shreds. These spheres can only be kept 
intact and entire by the exercise of an active will ; but 
this man's will, like that of vast numbers of the rnedi- 
umistic class — the automata of the dwellers in the Mid- 
dle State — had slept, and that so soundly that nothing 
but the echoes of his own misery could break it. Such 
people let things take their own course, or else rely on 
Spirits and earthly friends, instead of on themselves and 
Deity. They pursue the ways of such a false life, heed- 
less of the inevitable consequences of sorrow and dis- 
aster that must ensue ; they forget that, to be even .a 
moderately talented man or woman, is infinitely prefer- 
able to being the mere machine and mouth-piece of the 
loftiest seraph in the great Valhalla of the Skies — and 
that, too, for reasons plainly discernible. 

I saw, with grief and consternation, that not one 
medium in every ten had a perfect envelope — else they 
would not be so easily influenced by mortals, nor ob- 
sessed and possessed by the dead people from the mid- 
regions beyond the earth. * 

Through these openings the bodies and souls of m& 



108 DEALINGS WITH THE BEAD. 

diums may he and are attacked * the remnant of will 
destroyed or lulled, the moral sense stupified, and the 
entire being subjugated by spectral harpies and human 
ghouls, who wander on either bank of existence. 

Many people, when reading the Scriptures, are in- 
clined to explain away many things as ' poetry 7 which 
ought not to be so interpreted. Thus the first chapter 
of the book of Job contains the following assertions, 
which it would be well to read oftener and more care- 
fully : " Now there was a day when the sons of God 
came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan 
came also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan, 
Whence comest thou ? Then Satan answered the Lord 
and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from 
walking up and down in it. ;? 

Satan here undoubtedly means an evil chief of the 
harpy bands infesting the borders of both worlds, 
whose sole delight it is to circumvent God and man, 
and bring all good things to an evil end. Whether 
this state of things shall continue, depends not up<jn 
God or the devils, but upon man, and his actions, influ- 
ence and aspirations. Those ill-meaning ones who live 
just beyond the threshold, often attain their ends by 
subtly infusing a semi-sense of volitional power into 
the minds of their intended victims ; so that at last 
they come to believe themselves to be self-acting, when 



* Good spirits do not break the sphere I They approach the crown of the 
head and infuse thoughts, else blend themselves with the subject, but 
never by destroying either consciousness or will. Evil spirits attack 
the lower brain, the amative organs, the lower passions, and force the 
spheres of their victims. In a similar way the bad people destroy and 
ruin good ones, — Pub. 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 109 

in fact they are but the merest shuttlecocks, bandied 
about between the battledoors of knavish devils on one 
side, and devilish knaves upon the other ; and between 
the two, the poor wretches are nearly heart-reft and 
destroyed. 

For every ill there is a remedy, God-sanctioned and 
provided ; and the only one in such cases is the re- 
integration and rejuvenation of the will, and the repair- 
ing therewith of the disrupted sphere. The way that 
end is accomplished, is through the instrumentality of 
prayer and a persistent exercise of will. No person > 
who is at all reasonable, will for one moment believe 
that any of the profounder mysteries have yet been 
revealed by the class of spiritual beings who rap, tip, 
turn tables, and entrance mediums — the effect of all of 
which should only be to merely call attention, in well- 
regulated minds, to a new class of demonstrative evi- 
dence of the soul's immortality. When the intercourse 
between the two worlds shall have become normal, 
healthful and regular, the earth's inhabitants may look 
for light from beyond, of a nature and character far, 
very far above aught that yet has come ; and that much 
of the coming light will reach the earth in the same 
mode as that which is herein given, must be apparent, 
because the process is a normal and healthful one, pro- 
ducing satisfaction and content instead of doubt and 
distrust, as has been the case heretofore. 

Mankind, in either world, are as yet only on the bor- 
ders — the very edges of being and of knowledge — and 
men must and will come en rapport with the higher life 
only by living correct lives below. 

The first step toward this normal inspiration and en- 



110 DEALINGS WITH. THE BEAD. 

lightenment consists in gaining a complete mastery of 
the self, the purpose, and the will. The man or woman 
whD believes what any spiritual being may rap, tip, talk 
out, or write about, merely because it is a Spirit, has 
not yet left off childish things. In the coming time, 
men will derive information directly from the Soul- 
worlds, and not by the proxy of tables and spirits, as 
now. 

The course here recommended is the true and only 
one capable of effecting the redemption and liberation 
of the obsessed from the terrible thraldom to which, by 
their own unwise action, they have been subjected. 
The sufferings of the class alluded to ought to be prima 
facie evidence to themselves that their methods of 
dealing with the dead are not the proper ones, nor such 
as should be adopted by any sane or rational being. 
Their miseries, as a general thing, are severe enough to 
excite the pity and commiseration of even a fiend ; yet 
scarce ten in a hundred of these self-immolated victims 
receive even the poor meed of thanks, much less food 
and raiment, for their toil and pains. By self-abnega- 
tion and resignation of the will, they have brought their 
misery upon themselves, by opening their spheres for the 
free entrance of whatever apocryphal philosopher or 
saint, whose identity they can never prove, may choose 
to accept their invitation ; and after displacing their own 
common sense, substitute a very ?m-common kind in lieu 
thereof. It is only by an assertion of self, of will — a 
persistent upbuilding and reparation of the shattered 
fabric of their personal spheres — that the evil can be 
kept distant and the good be attracted and entertained. 
The great mass of obsessing and demonstrating spirits 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. Ill 

are from the Middle Kingdoms ; some of them are very 
powerful, and are scrip tur ally spoken of as " Princes 
and Powers of the Kingdoms of the air. 77 The better 
class are denizens of the pure Soul- worlds, which is as far 
removed from the Mid-region as light is from shadow. 
It is only by beating them off, that mediums can ever 
hope to regain their self-control, establish a communion 
with the divine City of pure souls, and successfully pass 
through the body of their double death, into the calm, 
sweet and holy atmosphere of the blissful regions which 
exist above. 

Millions there are, around whose hearts the tendrils 
of fondest love do cling — whose happiness is centered 
in some dear one 7 s heart, and to whom life were a dreary 
waste and barren, were they deprived of the sweet and 
cheering presence of their lost ones, at least in memory. 
The question of questions to these is, ' Shall we meet 
again ? — shall the broken links be reunited in the lands 
beyond the River ? When Death shall have sealed us 
apart, comes there ever a time when that seal shall be 
melted, and we loving ones clasp each other in a fond 
embrace ? 7 Such are vital questions, to which different 
answers must be given. 

One of the secrets which I soon discovered in the 
Soul-world was that consanguinity, although a very 
strong bond of union between people, is by no means 
the strongest. Those souls are nearest who occupy the 
same position on the plane of development. Thus it 
often happens that brothers and sisters are really less 
related than the same persons are to the most distant 
strangers. Children are often born of the same pa- 
rents, whose appearance, conversation, deportment, con- 



112 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

stitution, habits, disposition and proclivities are as dif- 
ferent as different can be. Such relations have nothing 
in common, save that the monad constituting the soul of 
each becomes incarnate in the same matrix ; that is all. 
All monads vary ; some are more unfolded and unfold- 
able than others, and while the intrinsic quality of each 
corresponds, yet conditions may cause a higher expres- 
sion of one than another, or that same one under differ- 
ent circumstances. Thus a monad, be it never so ripe 
in itself, is forced to surround itself with certain spirit- 
ual and material envelopes, furnished by the father, on 
its passage from his soul-cells to the gestative chamber 
wherein it clothes itself with corporality. Now, what- 
ever clings to the monad on its passage is totally ex- 
ternal, and is charged with the man. If he is a sot or 
libertine, bloodthirsty or ambitious, cheerful or de- 
spondent, these states are impressed upon all his juices 
and fluids, nervous, physical or spiritual ; and the en- 
velopes of the commissioned monad, partaking of these 
impressions, subsequently develops in the same direc- 
tion, and, on the principles of attraction and impres- 
sion, affect the fore-future of the contained monad or 
germ-soul. That this is true, and that all the ill is im- 
pressed externally, is proved by the fact that a couple 
may have children during one decade, wherein the pa- 
rents live upon a low external plane, which children 
will be angular, and manifest any but lovely and 
genial traits. The same persons, during the second 
decade, may reform and become deeply moved with re- 
ligious sentiment, such as expresses itself in prayer- 
meetings, singing, and violent faith-practice. The chil- 
dren born under this reign will be deeply excitable, 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 113 

fervent, ambitious, sensitive, boisterous at times, and, as 
a general thing, superficial and changeable. During 
the third decade, when common sense, practical ration- 
ality, and just and noble views of life and its obligations 
shall have taken the place of their previous state — 
when cleanliness, light, air, and sunshine, daily-acted 
prayers instead of loud-mouthed lip-worship, consti- 
tute some of the elements of their religion — and when 
their bodies have become purified by proper living, 
eating, drinking and labor — their children will be born 
with larger brains, better bodies, nobler appearances ; 
and their career through life will correspond. All this 
is as true as the Eternal Gospel, and shows that, al- 
though ill and evil are deeply rooted in the human soil, 
yet they are by no means ineradicable. 

All men know that they often feel more love and 
friendship for strangers than they do for their own 
blood brothers ; and friendship, when real, and not 
based upon physical properties, or selfish motives, is a 
thing that unquestionably survives the ordeal of the 
grave. Persons thus bound together will, and do meet, 
whether of the same lineage or not. But it often happens 
that thebestof earthly friends belong to and represent two 
distinct orders of soul ; and it may be that they pertain 
to orders so widely separated, that on earth, as in the 
heavens, they must lose each other, and strike hands 
and hearts over a gulf impassable by either. Do you 
not see hundreds of proofs of this all around you on the 
earth? A tender, gentle, delicate girl often clings, with 
all the desperate energy of idolization, to some rough, 
coarse, uncouth, unkempt and brutish fellow. The love 
of that poor heart will redeem that man from many a 



114 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

horror in the Middle state, and ensure his speedier en- 
trance into the lovely gardens of the Soul-world ! The 
same principle is demonstrated even among the animals, 
between opposite species of whom the fondest attach- 
ments often exist, as is seen in the Happy Families of 
menageries ; the love of a lion for a tigress, a cat for 
a rat, a horse for a hog, a serpent for a rabbit, and last 
and greatest, the love of the dog for man — an affection 
so deep and pure, that it puts that between human be- 
ings to the blush of shame by comparison ; for the dog — 
generous, noble dog ! — everywhere sacrifices every other 
love, and devotes his entire being to the services of his 
human friend. 

Dogs and birds abound in both the Spirit and the 
Soul-worlds. In both they are representatives of states 
— loves, affections — and are found in the former realm 
quite as often as in the latter, for the reason that the 
coarsest, most wicked, and brutal man, he who most 
violently hates his kind, yet must, and does, and will 
love something, and the dog is almost universally that 
object, else a bird or fowl ; for how often do you see 
the drunkard followed by his faithful cur, and how fre- 
quently the hardest man in a community lavishes the 
most tender care upon a fowl — a game-cock, a parrot or 
canary — sweet, beautiful, lovely canary! 

The first reply to the question, ' Shall we friends meet 
again V must be answered affirmatively. You will meet, 
but whether ye remain together is another question, 
and depends altogether on the rapidity with which the 
one shall unfold and develope up to the point occupied 
by the other. But, if the one friend belongs to one or- 
der, and the other to a higher, then the electric chain 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 115 

of unity will connect ye over the vastest ocean of infi- 
nite space. Everything moves in elliptical orbits in the 
material, spiritual and affectional realms alike. In the 
Soul-world the foci of this ellipse are Memory and Hope. 
The lines constituting it are also the lines of the great 
Harmonead — the vast Sympathia ; every human being, 
good as well as evil, is located on its plane, and along 
its wires forever is flashing love and well-wishing, and 
every heart must have its pulses quickened by the warm 
magnetic outflow. The sun's heat falls at an angle 
which enables Nova Zembla's icebergs to laugh at his 
efforts to melt them ; they have laughed these myriad 
centuries ; will laugh, perhaps, for hundreds more ; yet 
the sun is patient, still shines on, and with such a steady 
radiance and blandness, that the frozen North begins to 
quake with apprehension lest its reign be forever closed ; 
for somehow it begins to feel that the question of its 
regnancy is only one of time, and that heat is, after all, 
more powerful than cold, love than hatred ; wherefore 
it must one day yield — resolve its ices into liquid flow ; 
cause its frozen heaps to ride upon the waves toward 
the steaming seas : relieve the poles ; let the earth 
swing round, and all surface-earth smile with green 
gladness. So with the worlds beyond. The rays of 
goodness have long shone upon the evil ones of the 
Middle State, and have bounded off again. Still around 
go the flashes again and again ; for neither Grod nor true 
human souls grow tired of loving, even though that love 
be repelled seven, seventy, or seven myriads of times ! 
Around goes the flash, and at every circuit some good is 
done ! Navigators tell you that every year the number 
and bulk of icebergs from the Northern oceans increase 



116 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

in number in the Southern seas. Every one of them is 
a victory achieved by .Persuasion over Force ; and even 
so the population of the realms of the Soul-worlds is con- 
stantly increased by the accession of people who, having 
got tired of Hell, voted it unpleasant, and have deemed 
it expedient to emigrate to Heaven, a land which, they 
have learned from missionaries, abounds in milk and 
honey, and all good things whatsoever. Every one of this 
host of emigrants is an accession to the Good, and a loss 
irreparable to the Bad ! Every on§ is a symbol of the 
victory of Right over Wrong. Bye-and-bye there will 
be a total depopulation of the Middle kingdoms, and 
their places will be supplied with something better ; 
and the sooner mankind cease to do- evil and learn to 
do well, the quicker will this much-desired hegira take 
place. 

Pure love changes males into men ; and when men be- 
come what they are capable of in an upward direction, 
the Middle State will cease to be replenished by such as 
love ill. 

Of course, in a work professedly dealing with and ex- 
plaining the principia, like this, it is impossible to enter 
fully into specialities ; that task is deferred till another 
occasion. 

No truer saying ever was uttered than that God helps 
those who help themselves ; — a work which every one, 
especially the mediumistic class, are especially called on 
to perform. 

There being two sides to everything, there is the 
same to mediumship. The non-injurious kind is that 
which I advocate, and it consists in the Blending pro- 
cess already alluded to and explained. No possible 



DEALINGS WUH THE DEAD. 117 

harm can result from it. On the contrary, the popular 
sort, originating in the orient long centuries ago, and 
now revived in these latter days, can but be injurious 
to the last degree, because it consists in the usurpation 
of the living by the UNKNOWN ! There is a better 
way — a safer road, a thornless route — by means of 
which to reach all the knowledge, and far more besides, 
which is sought to be obtained by the other practice. 
That surer means does not consist in an abandonment 
of self, or stultification of the moral sense and will, nor 
in Mesmerism, or the use of hashish — the pestilent 
thing — nor in the employment of any unhealthful 
means, but in an increase and strengthening of will, 
and consciousness, and moral purpose ; not in a loss 
of consciousness or responsibility, but in an intensifica- 
tion and growth thereof. This better sort of spiritual- 
ism is based upon the heart and soul ; not, like the other 
sort, upon the nerves and body. This better sort pro-^ 
tects the sphere from the attacks, amatory and cerebral, 
to which the acolytes of the other kind are subjected. 
If people went direct to God for enlightenment, instead 
of to Spirits, who so frequently deceive, there would be 
much less, in fact no evil at all, resulting from the in- 
tercourse over the bridges of Time and Eternity ; and, 
by firmly relying on Him whose very existence thou- 
sands of the inhabitants of the Middle State deny and 
scout the bare idea of, people would not only be able to 
preserve their odylic spheres intact, but would be pro- 
tected from the diabolic influence and machinations of 
the harpies who infest the Threshold, and frequently 
deliver long and sounding platitudes from the lips of 
shut-eyed members of the two sexes ; for they are not 



118 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

men and -women yet, by a great deal. No one is, who 
yields the will and resigns both soul and body to any 
spectral experimenter in phreno-mesmerism who may 
chance to flit along, in their excursions ' up and down 
the world/ and who are continually ' going to and fro 
therein/ Reasonable people, whether of earth or higher 
worlds, are beginning to weary of seeing and hearing 
sensible-looking men and women, with closed eyes, 
pacing up and down a platform, and, with folly-driven 
tongue, giving vent to ' philosophy 7 which neither God, 
angels nor men can comprehend a word of ! 

Before long, something of the realities of the soul and 
its hidden history will be known, and then ambitious 
mouthers will no longer split the ears of the people 
with senseless harangues — olla-joodridas compounded of 
moon-shine and nonsense — pseudo-philosophic hash, con- 
cocted of fish, flesh and fowl — most foul, gammon of 
Bacon and Swedenborg essences — whereof the great 
Seer is as innocent as Peter the Hermit was of slaying 
Abel. The time approaches when a better state of 
things shall exist, and more rational views of human 
immortality be entertained by the masses. People have 
made a great mistake in supposing that all the high- 
flown stuff spoken, written or printed, as emanations 
from the worlds beyond, were really true ; for much of 
it originated in the brains of the deliverers thereof, 
whilst more of it is but the result of tricky exploita- 
tions of disembodied wags, or downright evil spirits. 
Another and very popular error is, that the advent of 
Spiritualism constitutes the opening dawn of a New 
Dispensation ; that it is to supersede Christianity, or to 
become the nucleoli of a new order of sects, or even the 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 119 

nucleus or pivot of a single one. No, no ; Spiritualism 
has not yet produced fruit in the souls of its believers, 
at all to be compared to those growing on the tree 
planted on the stony heights of Calvary nearly two 
thousand years ago ! It is, in itself, powerless to su- 
persede a system so infinitely grand and sublime as that 
founded by the twelve fishermen and their illustrious 
Lord. Nor is such its mission. Supply and demand wait 
ever upon each other. The sense of human immortality, 
in community, the wide world over, had grown dull, 
vagueand indistinct, lulled by the droning music and 
somnifying humdrum of theology. Churchianity to a 
great degree had usurped the office and functions of 
Christianity, and the sense of an hereafter had so 
nearly died out, that bad advocates of annihilation 
preached and printed their infernal libels on the cor- 
ners of the world's highway, and millions began to seri- 
ously question wherein man was entitled to what ani- 
mals were not ; while philosophic hucksters still, with 
quirk and grimace, howled forth " Books proving God a 
myth, Christ a bastard, the Bible a lie, immortality a 
lame delusion, and virtue mere nonsense !" And then 
these peddlers bawled : " What pre-eminence hath a 
man above a brute ? Wherein is he better than the 
dogs which perish ? Who knoweth the Spirit of a man 
that it goeth upward, or the spirit of a beast that it is 
blotted out and goeth outward like an extinguished 
lamp, or downward like a lead to the bottom of — non- 
entity ? Come, buy my books ! come, buy my books I" 
Sutely here was a demand for light upon the tre- 
mendous question, ' Are we to be, or not to be, whon 
life's fitful fever is o'er V Here was a question requir- 



120 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

ing the lips of the infinite God to answer — and He did ! 
for with the weakest instruments He confounded earth's 
greatest and wisest men. Through a harlot's daughter 
was met and vanquished all opposers of His truth, that 
" Death was not the destiny of man f through a bar- 
ber's clerk was revealed the Hierarchy of the vast 
Heaven ; through a country-school teacher was declared 
the Order and the Majesty of Being ; and through the 
agency even of the wicked dead was demonstrated 
man's continued life ! Spiritualism came, not as the su- 
perseder of the Christ, but as the final demonstrator of 
His truth. It came to transfuse new energy into man 
and man's religion ; it comes to point the better way, 
and to foreshadow the radiant glories now beneath the 
horizon ; it comes saying, ' Prepare ye the way of the 
Lord — make His paths straight by straightening thine 
own!' It comes to infuse new and glowing hope in 
every heart bowed down ; and from the hill-tops and 
the valleys of the world alike, it points man's vision 
upward, and bids him, in the midst of all his trouble 
and sorrow, to ' Remember, God is there! up there! 
In the steep and radiant sky He paints the picture of 
the yet to Be, and sending spiritual duplicates thereof 
to His children in their deep sleep, bids the dreamer 
behold them, treasure their memory, and to live—live 
highly, purely nobly, manfully ! Live, live, and die no 
more forever !' 

Spiritualism — true Spiritualism — is one expression 
and element of the soul of the age — an age whose body 
is exceedingly corrupt ; and it so quickens the intui- 
tions of some of the watchers on the tower, that they 
can already see the glimmer of the rising sun of glad- 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 121 

ness — a sun too, whose glorious beams will dissipate 
all the fogs and mists now bending over human heads, 
and shutting out the light of higher heavens than op- 
tician's glass can ever reveal. Aye, truly do some be- 
hold the hither end of the bow of promise, and these are 
singing the song of approaching joy : 

" The wiser time will surely come 
When this fine overplus of night, 
No longer sullen, slow or dumb, 
Shall leap to music and to light. 
In^that new childhood of the world, 
Life of itself shall dance and play, 
Fresh blood through Time's shrunk veins be hurled, 
And Labor meet Delight half-way." 

There can be no doubt but that the days of Evil by 
God are numbered — those arising from obsession in- 
cluded. 

Gazing still adown the lane of light, I saw that a 
process had been commenced in the soul of the man 
upon the stage, who was about to address the assem- 
bled crowd — a process, too, which would ultimately set 
him free — for already his sphere indicated the begin- 
ning of the reparatory action ; and in precisely so far 
as he helped himself, and shook off the influence of 
others, just so far did one or two attendant and ra- 
diantly bright beings, of a high and pure order, assist 
and protect him ; and, gazing upon the scroll of his des- 
tiny, I saw that in five years from that day he would 
complete his apprenticeship, and stand before the world 
no longer an automaton, but a firm and solid-minded 
man ; that, no longer lecturing upon useless metaphysi- 
cal abstractions, he would, for three years, preach the 
gospel of truth and true Christianity, with a power and 
effect never to be attained by human machines, but only 
6 



122 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

by good, well-developed, unfolded, and harmonic souls^ 
* * * * Slowly the opening through which this 
great practical drama was seen, and its beautiful teach- 
ings conveyed to me, closed up, and once more I stood 
solitary in the midst of my aural sphere. Looking now 
toward the point wherefrom I had turned a little while 
before, my eyes observed that the apparent attack upon 
its integrity was still going on ; but this was mechanical 
only, for my mind was dwelling upon things of far more 
interest and importance. Amongst other lessons gained 
during the brief time that I had been dead to earth, 
alive to a higher existence, was this : The terrestrial 
world itself is really spiritual, could mankind but per- 
ceive it. For instance, every tree, shrub, flower, plant 
and animal is not only possessed of an ideal and thought- 
representative value, but they are themselves essen- 
tially spiritual ; for the bark, and leaves, and woody 
fiber, the flower-petals, and all that physical eyes be- 
hold, are not the things they seem, but are merely the 
outer-coats and coverings, the cloaks and garments which 
the things themselves put on ; the nature of the external 
form being determined by alaw integral to the very thing 
itself, just as a picture is merely the physical embodi- 
ment of an idea in the artist's mind. Unfavorable con- 
ditions cramp some trees physically ; but burn the wood, 
and the spirit of the tree is as perfect as the Infinite 
One could fashion it. So also with human trees. In- 
teriorly, many men and women are better than they 
seem, and many are worse. Still, be it remembered, 
that beauty and symmetry is natural to trees, even though 
storms, and snow, and fierce winds dismember and ren- 
der them hideous ; so also virtue and goodness is natu- 
ral to the human soul, while vice and deformity are 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 123 

artificial and conditional acquisitions. A man may lose 
an eye, leg, arm, be disfigured by accident or disease 
to an extent that will render him hideous to all em- 
bodied beholders ; but let him die, or, while living, be 
gazed at by spiritual beings, and his legs, arms, eyes — 
the whole man stands revealed in all his true propor- 
tions.* This discovery gave me joy, indeed ; for I had 
known some whose disfigurements had pained me ex- 
ceedingly. No maimed.forms ascend from gory fields 
of battle ; no crippled people inhabit the Soul-worlds. 
Thank God for that ! True, in the regions midway, 
there are many who, being insane, or immersed in phan- 
tasies, insist on appearing as they were on earth, or 
even in worse plight ; but this is not necessarily so, any 
more than the grimaces of a clown or mountebank are 
the natural expressions of his features. By this time I 
had also learned that, with the exception stated pre- « 
viously in reference to the essences of things, the two 
worlds — earthly and spiritual — were in scarce any one 
thing alike, as had been taught by those whose books 
upon the subject I had lost so much valuable time in 
reading — -finely written and eloquent books, truly — 
yet, after all, I found them now to be filled with : 

" Rich windows that exclude the light 
And passages that lead to — nothing." 

My experience demonstrated that the two worlds are- 
not equal, continuous, or even resemblant. In fact, 
they, being disparates, many failures must necessarily 
be made in attempting, in the present state of the lan- 
guages at least, to convey adequate verbal representa- 

* A man's spiritual form may be cat, shot, or slashed through ten 
thousand times, yet never a bullet or knife will injure him ; and this for 
reasons already set forth in earlier pages of this book. 



124 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

tions of things above to those below — not with the col- 
loquial and literary, nor even with the aid of modern 
philosophical, scientific, metaphysical nor theological 
technics now in use amongst thinkers. But the people 
are longing for information respecting the soul's condi- 
tion subsequent to its departure from the rudimental 
scene ; they want to know what a soul is, where it goes, 
how it gets there, and what are its environments thereaf- 
ter ; consequently the essay to impart the required in- 
formation must be made, even at the risk of adding to 
the hundred failures already made. The word vast, for 
instance, when I apply it in the description about to be 
given, is not to be understood in the sense of enormous- 
ness, but in a different one altogether. Well then, in 
a short time, the side of the sphere yielded to the ap- 
plied force, and broke completely in two from top to bot- 
„ torn, and the two sides instantly thereafter resolved them- 
selves into a vast archway — vast in beauty, grandeur, 
color, form and symbolic meaning. Toward the invit- 
ing passage thus presented, as if impelled by an invisi- 
ble, but powerful force, I slowly moved involuntarily. 
Upon reaching it, the entire sphere seemed to draw 
into me. I stepped over the threshold ; turned to look 
at it — but, lo ! it had vanished. 

This taught me a lesson. I saw that if one chose to 
do so, he might, while on earth, and in the Middle State, 
draw his sphere within him, and lie concealed in the 
deeps of his own being, unreadable by any, save God 
and the dwellers of the Soul-world. This is effected 5 at 
first by strong efforts of the will, — (both Napoleons are 
illustrative instances), — which soon becoming a habit, 
is effected by the soul mechanically. At first, upon find- 
ing myself alone, and my sphere absorbed, I could not 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 125 

comprehend the celestial magic by means of which it 
was effected. No opportunity, however, was then af- 
forded for investigations of the mystery, for a crowd of 
new marvels rolled on me, in such quick succession, 
that all my soul became at once deeply engaged. My 
vision was clear, distinct and far-reaching, and thou- 
sands of objects existed upon all sides to attract it. The 
scene was the realization of the fairest, brightest Ar- 
cadie of which wrapt poet ever dreamed. Hundreds upon 
hundreds of the most beautiful of human creatures that 
imagination ever pictured were there, in all the glory 
of &fete in Heaven. Not a line of care or sorrow traced 
its course upon a single cheek or brow of the vast mul- 
titudes who thronged the glades and gardens of that 
wondrous realm. It was the actuality of the fairest 
ideal of earth's noblest poet, and something more ; for 
there was a nameless something about it that earth can 
never give. Magnificent and lofty trees, the movement 
of whose very leaves was sweetest music ; streams of 
living water, whose ripples flashed back ten thousand 
magia hues of loveliness, to a stately but unmoving Sun 
in the mid-heaven ; flowers of rare conformation, whose 
colors and fragrance put earthly roses to the blush, un- 
folded their glory-cups to God's bright sentinel, and 
praised His name in incense-offerings ; bowers of shrubs, 
resplendent meadows, stately groves, adown the sylvan 
glades of which scores of merry children trooped, and 
soul-wed lovers wandered, were a few of the things 
upon which I gazed in a raptness whereof poets may 
conceive, but which to colder souls will be mysteries 
for long. Splendid palaces towered in the distance, 
while near at hand, on the green banks of many a sing- 
ing brook, numberless cottages gemmed the scene. 



126 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

Even animals were there — some of familiar and well- 
known forms, some of new and singular shape and pe- 
culiar grace. Birds — rare-birds, of the most brilliant 
plumage, played amidst the trees, and warbled aongs of 
strange melody and meaning. Such, and a thousand 
other things beside, not one of which I had ever ima- 
gined to exist, were constituents of the scene upon which 
my eye now rested for the first time. Taken as a 
whole, the entire vivorama was, in its nature and ef- 
fect, at that time, incomprehensible, and at first some- 
what oppressive ; but this latter feeling was very ephem- 
eral, and gave place to a delight, at once pure, deep 
and unalloyed. 

When this scene first burst upon me, my attitude was 
one of unmingled surprise, and I retained it all the while 
my soul was drinking in the glory. Casting my eyes 
groundward, the vision rested upon an opake, cloud-like 
soil ; and while inwardly wondering whether the soil 
was really what it seemed to be, or not, I heard my 
name called in well-remembered tones. Turning has- 
tily, I found the sounds came from a grove hard by, 
whence three persons were seen approaching me. They 
drew nearer, and I had no difficulty in recognizing one 
of the comers to be Nellie. I knew her by her general 
air, not from the appearance of her person ; for that was 
entirely changed, and no longer appearing a mere child, 
she looked to have reached the happy medium state 
wherein the girl just begins to be the woman. She was 
very pretty when she had assumed the status of a child, 
but noiv she fairly blazed with a beauty most transcend- 
ent. By her side moved a young and noble-looking 
man, yet one around whom there floated an atmosphere 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 127 

of Power, Will, and Intenseness, that inspired ine at first 
with something very akin to awe. 

His garb was decidedly oriental, and became his fea 
tures wonderfully, while at the same time it imparted a 
freedom and grace, that added to, instead of detracting 
from his dignity. Observing that I scrutinized his ap- 
parel, he smiled, and glanced sidewise at my own. I 
did the same, and it flashed upon me instantly that my- 
self, instead of being habited after the fashion of the 
Occident, I to others must present the appearance of a 
sultana of the ancient East. Again my eye met his, 
and in that meeting there was a mingling too, for I felt 
and knew that he was mine, and I his own ; that we 
two were henceforward to be as one — for a period at 
least, if not forever. Poor me — I did not then know 
how long ' forever ' is. On earth, in love affairs, the 
term means two months, more or less. It stands for a 
longer period here, yet does not include the categories 
of all the eternities — quite. I had forgotten that states 
constitute the marks of duration in the Soul-worlds, and 
not the tickings of a clock ; but so inveterate is the 
force of habit and ideal associations, that at first it was 
almost impossible to predicate sequences upon anything 
else than lapse of time, or to dissociate the memories of 
the past, and the menstruum of the events whereof they 
are the shadowy records, from the realities of the then pre- 
sent, and the action of the New Principia operative in the 
Soul-world. Besides this, I had been theretofore deeply 
tinctured with the folly-essence, so much of which has 
been distilled by modern eolists, and would-be philoso- 
phers, to addle the brains of sensible people, and to 
dilute what little of common sanse themselves — the 
eolists — might chance to possess. I had with thousands 



128 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

of others believed that the doctrine of ' eternal affinities ' 
was true ; and that every one would somewhere meet 
with a congenial partner, in whose society all the coin- 
ing cycles of Time would be joyously passed. I have 
outgrown that folly long since. The doctrine is a false 
one for this brief reason. God alone is infinite. No 
human being is infinite, save in capacity for acquire- 
ment ; therefore the human soul must be fed by that 
alone which is superior in its nature, at every stage of 
its growth, progress or unfoldment ; for which reason 
no one soul can forever supply the demands of another. 
No two souls develope in equal or parallel lines, or at 
the same rate, for which reason one must outgrow its 
affinities for another ; besides which marriage in the 
Soul-world is an entirely different institution, as to its 
nature, condition, purpose, result and effect, to what it 
is on earth. Lust and passion, selfish interests, and ten 
thousand other things pertain to marriage on the earth, 
which enter not at all into that of the loftier stages of 
human existence. On earth, at best, love and affection 
are plebeian. In the Soul-worlds they are imperial ! 
In the former these things go begging — in the latter, 
never. On earth the person Jo ving often embalms the 
loved one in his or her own sphere, and then clings to 
the worthless thing thus infiltrated, thus loving the self 
and not another. Being therefore all on one side, there 
is no mutuality. Such is not the case in the Sunny 
Land! 

The glowing son of the Orient drew near to me, and 
I to him. Our spheres touched ; they blended — and in 
an instant I knew more of what love and tenderness 
really meant, than in all the long years I had lived 
before. 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 129 

When first gazing on my reflected image in the floor- 
mirror, I had suspected the nature and fervor of the 
reg^l passion ; but now, as he touched me — as our 
spheres blended, and strange thrills went bounding and 
dancing through every avenue of my being, I realized 
that not one half of the reality had ever been imagined, 
even in a remote degree. 

Among people of the higher orders in human society, 
the testimony of the ' hear-says ' is not regarded as being 
of the most satisfactory or convincing kind. This book 
and those which are to follow it, is, and will be, ad- 
dressed only to those who think and feel for themselves; 
are intended for those who can pierce through the mere 
formalism of narrative and statement, to the solid prin- 
ciples underlying them. And for this reason, therefore, 
have I forborne to repeat many strange and wonderful 
things told me by him who now stood at my right side 
notwithstanding that such repetitions would be deeply 
interesting to those people who believe they have im- 
mortal souls, but are not quite certain of that fact. It 
is better to tell what I saw, felt, learned and experi- 
enced, than to relate what others told me. 

I may remark, en passant, that the sentence ' stood 
by my side ? appeared to be well founded ; for although 
I knew my comrades to be spirits, yet they were to me 
quite as really and palpably human, as was the mother 
at whose dear breast I drew in life many a long year 
ago. 

Mention has been made of the fact that knowledge 
comes to a person in the higher life, just in proportion 
to that person's fitness for its reception, the Use in 
the great economy which it will subserve, and the Good 
that it will <Jo. I was now in a conditio]! to be taught; 



130 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

and therefore the doors of the soul's knowledge-cham- 
bers were swung wide upon their hinges, so to speak, 
and into them the following answers flowed naturally 
and sweetly, in response to self-propounded questions 
concerning all that had transpired since my emerge- 
ment from the interior of my personal into the general 
sphere of that portion of the immense Soul-world where- 
in I now found myself. It has already been stated, and 
understood by the reader, that the sphere in which the 
memoramic tableaux moved across its diameter, was the 
personal out-surrounding of the individual. Precisely 
the same, with the exception of being on a vastly gran- 
der scale, was this new Soul-realm whereof I had be- 
come an inhabitant. The fact is, I had been in it from 
the dawn of the second hour of my disembodiment, only 
that the opacity of my vision and the walls of my sphere 
had prevented me from realizing it, just as a person with 
nebulous eyes is unaware of the glories of a landscape 
in the midst of which he stands, alongside of a friend 
whose eyes are clear and good, and whose soul fairly 
dances with rapture as he scans the sea of loveliness, 
which is all shut out from the other. 

All truths go in couples. I had just discovered one, 
and its mate very soon thereafter appeared. It was this : 
What I had thought to be an attempt to break down 
the walls of my circumvallated sphere, prove now not 
to have been the work of another, but was the result of 
the operation of a natural law of the soul — that of In- 
teomission ; but which law does not act until after cer- 
tain others have effected peculiar changes in the indi- 
vidual — just as grace and resignation succeed the tumult 
and agony of repentance and remorse. This law of in- 
tromission finds its humble analogy in the grub and 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 131 

subsequent gold-winged butterfly ; and also in the 
chick, whose tiny bill perforates its hard surrounding 
stone-and-mortar sphere — for it batters and pecks at 
the sides of its prison-shell and cell when the process of 
incubation is nearly finished, whereupon the bird en- 
ters upon a new phase of existence ; and so also does 
the human soul, when its period is completed. All Na- 
ture is a system of births. 

These things are stated and these principles laid 
down, in order to undeceive those who have accepted as 
true the many crude and materially defective hypotheses 
purporting to come from 'Royal Circles' in the Soul- 
world, through scores of modern eolists. My design is 
to show the rightly dying what they must expect when 
rightly dead. True, there is an increasing number of 
Spiritualists and others who accept the revelations of 
mediums on the principle interdum stultits bene loqui- 
tur ; yet there are others who accept nine-tenths of 
what purports to come from the worlds beyond, merely 
because of its claim. Truth will bear its own weight; 
if not now, then in the course of coming time ; still it 
is ever and always best for every one to reason well on 
every proposition or statement offered as coming from 
the world of spirits — this book's contents, of course, in- 
cluded. Amongst other notions, which along with my 
co-believers on earth I had imbibed, was that which 
declares the Spirit-land to be a fixed revolving zone — 
a sort of second edition of the earth and its adjuncts. 
I had expected to find my last home on one of those 
aerial belts, occupying space just as a town or city does. 
What an error ! No two antipodal things can be more 
unlike — for I found that all the untold magnificence 
that now lay outspread before me was, just as my former 



132 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

sphere, but the general out-creation, elimination or pro- 
jection from the countless hosts of beatified and radi- 
ant souls who dwell together and create their own 
scenery and surrounding, just as a man creates chateaux 
en espagne, only that in this latter he exists forever on 
the outside — in the former, dwells within them. In 
other words, the realm whereof I was an inhabitant 
was not physical in any sense, nor were any of its sub- 
jects or objects ; neither were they phantasmal, but 
were spiritual, in the sublime sense of that much abused 
term ; and although not permanant or fixed, as is a 
town on earth, yet were none the less true and real. 

In order to better comprehend what sort of a place 
is that world wherein I met Nellie and mine, it will be 
well if the reader remember that everything save 
thought is perishable. For instance you have a thought 
of a pink satin dress, made up in a peculiar style ; your 
father has a thought of a new cottage, complete in all 
its parts ; your brother invents a new-modelled car- 
riage for your mother's use ; while your farmer invents 
a new building, which will serve at once for carriage- 
house and barn — and all four of you forthwith proceed 
to realize your several ideals ; and in a month the new 
barn stands upon the brookside, the new cottage peeps 
forth from its bower of elms, the new carriage rolls 
along, and in it, clad in your pink satin, you enjoy a 
ride with the dear old mother. Three days thereafter 
the cottage and barn catch fire, and the dress and car- 
riage become ashes, and so do all your patterns and 
models ; yet your thoughts are living, still fresh as 
ever, and all that is necessary, is for all four of you to 
once more embody them in material garb, and in an- 
other month a stranger, having seen the first and not 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 133 

knowing of the catastrophe, would swear that what now 
he beheld was the same formerly so much admired — 
and he would be right. The ideas are the same, albeit 
the material raiment is not. John Doe is still John 
Doe, whether in rags or riches ; why not, then, John's 
thought be the same ? 

It will be well to remember that God is a Thinker — 
that the vast material universe is the visible result of a 
single effort of a single faculty-organ of the Deific brain, 
and — tremendous thought ! — that faculty-organ will yet 
make myriads of new movements, each one followed by 
results still more stupendous and magnificent than the 
vast array of starry suns which now light up the Halls 
of Silence and of Space ! Again : the spiritual or rather 
the thinking part of man is all there is of permanency 
about the human being. His body is the sport of Death, 
and his aid- de-camp Disease ! but his soul can never be 
touched by the former, nor forever be harmed by the lat- 
ter ! for soul is not to be 'permanently injured by any 
power subservient to the infinite God. All there is of 
man is his thought-power ; the Think is himself. By 
this We know him ; and he who gives forth most of him- 
self, if he be bad, does the most injury to the species and 
the world. If he be good, such an one lives longest in 
men's hearts, on historic page, and in the traditions of 
the race. 

The Spiritual Universe ! What a mighty concep- 
tion ! And yet, even that, grand as it is — for all the 
material globes of space, chained together, are, after 
all, but a mere little island floating, like a bottle, upon 
the crest of a single wavelet of the Infinite Sea ! — yet, 
even that Spiritual Universe itself, with its amaz- 
ing soul realms, made up of countless Soul-systems, 



134: DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

each of which latter is composed of the blended spheres 
of innumerable millions of separate dualities — even all 
this — all these, I say, are but the result of a single effort 
of another distinct faculty-organ of the great brain ; 
yet even this grand result will be surpassed by every 
one of the myriad efforts that same faculty-organ is des- 
tined to put forth. And when it shall have moved more 
times than there are stars in the sky, grains of sand 
upon the sea-shores, leaves in the forests, or aspirations 
in the human soul — greater than all — the end will not 
be even foreshadowed, nor God's laboratory one whit 
exhausted ! Man himself, generically speaking, wher- 
ever localized beneath the bending dome of the imperial 
Heaven, is but the result of another single effort — of 
another single organ of faculty. [For although man is 
nidulated in and developed to personal distinctness 
through matter, yet the very nature of the thinking 
principle at once forbids the assumption that it sprung 
from any combination of material essences, howsoever 
subtle they may be, and at once explodes the spiritual- 
istic doctrine that matter continues on into spirit. No ; 
soul is discreted from matter by a gulf so wide that an 
infinite vaccuum exists between the coarsest soul and 
the most sublimated etherial vapor that ever resulted, 
or ever will result, from molecular attrition or chemical 
resolution. Individual monads — all men and women — 
are scintillas or parts of this third great thought of the 
Mighty Thinker, God ; they are confiscations from The 
Over-Soul, while Matter is constituted of etherial ema- 
nations from God's Infinite Body."] Now every exist- 



* I regret that the limits adjudged to tnis volume will not permit 
an amplification of this part of our subject. It must abide the next 
book. — Author. 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 135 

ence represents a thought of Deity ; so also man thinks 
himself in his actions, and fills the world with his 
thoughts, variously clothed ; some in iron, steel, wood, 
paper, ivory, cloth, palaces, engines, ships, houses, parks, 
gardens, and so on ; so, also, after his disembodiment, 
will he surround himself with soul-created forms, whose 
aspect, shape and texture depends altogether on the 
cleanliness and purity of the loom wherein these mental 
fabrics are woven. The sole difference between the 
creations of the mortal and post-mortem artificer is, 
that, instead of arraying them in gross or coarse ma- 
terial, as on earth, he in the Soul-worlds, fashions the %/ 
garments .of such stuff as thoughts themselves are made 
of ; or, to give it still clearer, each thought possesses an 
inherent vitality of its own, as also form, proportion, 
and coherence. Thus, if an engineer thinks a locomo- 
tive, all he has to do. in order to impress his thought 
on others, is to give it a suit of iron, brass and steel to 
wear, and, lo ! all the world hails, and triumphantly ac- 
knowledges the worth of the offspring of his deathless 
soul. 

Just as soon as the man has placed metallic parts 
where only mental ones were previously, all the people 
see it, feel it, know it to be an engine — that is to say, 
an incarnate thought of a certain engineer. 

Now, take notice all ye who think, that the combined 
glories of the separate sections of the great Soul-#orld 
are constituted of the general projections of the disem- 
bodied order, or section of an order, that compose the 
society around whom the sphere is seen. There are 
myriads of these societies ; and no one belonging to so- 
ciety A can enter the sphere of society B, notwithstand- 
ing both may belong to the same general order. True, 



136 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

people can visit each other there as well as anywhere 
else. But visitors may not be equals for all that. In 
each society will be found those who love and affect 
birds ; and just as sure as he or she has a bird in the 
soul, just so sure will that bird be born thereof, and be- 
come, to all intents and purposes (except begetting its 
kind) a veritable bird. Others love trees, rivers, castles, 
brooks, hills, dales, vales, vineyards, gardens, groves, 
cottages, palaces, mountains, animals, and so on, through 
an interminable list, and interminable combinations of 
what that list may contain. 

Whatever be the ideal of a man or community, just 
so will be the out-sphering thereof. Thus, Mohammed 
(and the Orientals generally) loved woman, for the 
sake of the sense-gratifications she was found capable 
of imparting. Accordingly, when his soul was trans- 
figured, it went directly to that section of the Soul- 
world where were congregated those like unto him- 
self ; and, when he came back, he fired his partizans 
with the deepest and wildest enthusiasm ever known 
on earth, by telling them that the women of Paradise 
were fairer than the full moon, more lovely than the 
dawn, and that every mother's son of the faithful should 
be rewarded there, for all their earthly sorrows, by the 
absolute possession of the moderate number of seventy 
thousand houris. 

Mofiammed was not a liar nor an impostor ; he told what 
he believed to be truth. His houris, like the birds and 
beasts just spoken of, were out-creations of the sensual- 
istic mind of the sphere into which he rode on the sad- 
dle of Al Borak. Every mau or woman's mind is an 
empire, and the higher the position each occupies upon 
the plane of the Harmonead, the more extensive is the 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 137 

domain over which they hold imperial sway. The same 
laws which govern an individual, also rule a commu- 
nity ; for a man is a man only to such extent as he 
prophecies and represents something higher and better 
than the present status. The observance of law, by 
persons and en masse, may be voluntary or habitual, or 
not. This being understood, it is no marvel that the 
things resident in the general mind should be objectified 
therearound as in the case of a single person, nor that 
in the former, as in the latter case, the tilings thought 
of should be present, as well as those which are purely 
symbolic and representative of the general state, the 
general love, the general affections and aspirations of 
the general mind. 

As this and similar light flowed into my soul, that 
soul involuntarily thanked the Giver for such amazing 
exhibitions of his loving kindness and careful provi- 
dence. I could now understand many things that were 
before quite mysterious, and, amongst others, why Nel- 
lie and Mine had at first shown themselves to me under 
the guise of Youth and Age. It was to all the quicker win 
my esteem and confidence, each of which are prime ele- 
ments both of friendship and love. Previous to my 
change, I had often tried to analyze this last-named sen- 
timent or passion (as ycm will), as it exists amongst the 
people of the world. The result of that analysis was, 
c Love is a mixed passion ; its orbit is elliptical — friend- 
ship is at one of the foci, and lust at the other.' Now, 
however, as my enraptured vision swept the plains of 
immortality, I found that in the Soul-world it was some- 
thing more,* but that its essential earthly character re- 



* In the succeeding volume, the reader will be carried into a new 



138 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

mained the same in the Middle States — or merely spiritu- 
al kingdom. With penetrating glance I swept the fields 
of earth, and the result was a complete conviction that 
ninety-five one-hundredths of that which goes by love's 
tender, gentle name, was a compound of three constitu- 
ents — Parentalism, Amative desire, and the softer ele- 
ment, Friendship. Hence sex, and what comes of it on 
earth, is at best but the most coarse and external ex- 
pression of a great soul-law, which can only fully de- 
monstrate itself in those who are in no one respect abnor- 
mal or diseased. Sex really means more than people 
even remotely suspect. In the Soul-world it does not 
serve the same purposes as on earth. There, sex is of 
mind — on earth it is of the body mainly. I had sup- 
posed it to be a fixed physical principle ; and so it is, 
but it is also something more — for in the higher realms 
of human being, where everything expresses itself as it 
really is, and passes at its true value, it is found that 
many who, as if by accident, had worn the physical 
characteristics of one, were really, at soul, of the oppo- 
site sex. For instance, Male means Energy, "Wisdom, 
Knowledge, Power, Creation, Use — Female is the syno- 
nym of Music, Beauty, Love, Purity, Harmony, Good. 
Now let two such meet in the Soul-world, and if they 
are adapted to each other, their spheres — nay, their 
very lives — blend together ; the result of which is mu- 
tual improvement, purification, gratification, enjoyment, 
and happiness — which state of bliss continues until new 
unfoldings from within shall unfit them for the further 
continuance of the union ; whereupon there is a mutual 

Soul-region, of which Love is the key ; and then the world will see 
what a vast deal of knowledge exists of which man has never heard. 

Pub. 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 139 

separation — not because they love each other less, but 
some other one the more ; and that other one, be it 
male or female, is certain to be ready for the reception 
of the new love. There is no jar, no ill-feeling, no dis- 
cord about it. Some of these unions may last for what 
to man may seem to be long ages, but what the final 
result will be I have not space here to mention. 

It often happens that human bodies are so diseased? 
and by mal-practice so distorted from their true uses, 
that pure and genuine love cannot express itself — 
wherefore it soon becomes a sealed mystery, and Pas- 
sion usurps Love's holy throne. He or she whose nerves 
have become ruined, either by grief or excess, opium, 
rum, tobacco, Mesmerism, Oppression, Neglect, and 
things of that order, can never taste the ineffable joys 
of love that attend on those who in such regard are 
healthy. 

Love has become either a boyish or girlish sentiment, 
else a sort of spasmodic fever, which possession speedily 
and forever chills. 

In human society it has become a purchasable com- 
modity. Women sell themselves for gew-gaws— for a 
home — to escape parental tyranny and unjust espionage. 
Men buy them, and think they are gaining love— not 
realizing that joys or pleasures bought at any price are 
not the realities for which the bargain was made, but 
only counterfeits, which all too soon demonstrate their 
own worthlessness. Buy a woman ! purchase a man ! 
bargain for love! How much is Sunshine worth a 
quart ? How does Goodness sell by the barrel "? It is 
very easy for either man or woman to buy each other's 
garments, but the souls beneath them must be won by 
wooing. Physical possession never yet satisfied a soul, 



140 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

and never will. Soul naturally shrinks from scales, 
weights, measures, and yard-tapes ; and it quite as in- 
tensely despises all protestation. Why ? Because pure 
love is undemonstrative. Demonstration proceeds from 
volition, but love flows from a fountain altogether back 
of will. People may be proud of their property, but the 
human can have no true deep joys, save such as spring 
from love, pure, strong, earnest, spontaneous and recip- 
rocal. Whatever is not thus based is distasteful to the 
soul in its higher moods. Joys of a tumultuous charac- 
ter, such as spring from impulsiveness and passion, are 
both short-lived and exhaustive ; and the pestilent brood 
of anger, jealousy, hatred, disgust and trouble, ever and 
always follow in their train — priests of Misery, prime 
ministers of Evil ! On the other hand, pure manly, 
womanly, human love, is recuperative, re-creative — is a 
virtue-exhilarant, tonic of good, vice-dispellant, and 
health-promotive ; while contentment of heart, peace of 
mind, security, trust, calmness and serenity, are its at- 
tendant ministers. God, who made us, well knows that 
there is more of good than evil in our hearts, by virtue 
of our ancestry — Nature and Himself ; yet, for His own 
grandly-purposed end, He permits us all to wade to 
Heaven through the malarious swamps of hell [—permits 
us all to experiment and suffer, in order that we may 
grow powerful and strong, and thus be fitted for the 
tremendous destiny that awaits all who wear the human 
form on the thither side of Time. People feel before 
they think, and the act of one single impulsive moment 
not seldom enshrouds an entire life in gloom. Have 
mercy, therefore — always ! Mere thinking without feel- 
ing is quite as bad — nay, worse ; for it freezes up the 
fountains of the soul ! Something will grow and bios- 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 141 

som even* on an arid desert ; but the iceberg is never 
gladdened by the presence and growth of one green 
thing upon its crystal sides — not even moss, So with 
soul ! It is bad to sin from impulse, but far worse to 
do wrong from settled purpose. There are two classes 
of persons who err. Those who do so from no evil in- 
tent at heart, soon vastate their load, and become resi- 
dents of the Soul-world ; those who sin from the head, 
pass into the Middle State and become the infesting de- 
mons of modern spiritual mediums. 

The deepest wrongs of human existence are those 
against the inward soul and sense of right. Illustra- 
tion : "Whatsoever earthly couple shall assume the 
dreadful responsibility^ not only of imbittering each 
other's lives, but of incarnating a family of souls in dis- 
cordant bodies, inevitably fashion a hell-sphere for 
themselves in the Middle State, whence they shall not 
go forth until the uttermost farthing is paid. The re- 
cent partial uplifting of the veil separating earth from 
regions beyond, has had the effect of removing the 
sense of accountability from the minds of a great many 
people, who, having conversed with the dead through 
raps and tips, and hearing no valid accounts of a burn- 
ing lake of literal fire and brimstone, straightway fall 
to laughing at the devil, and snap their fingers at the 
bare idea of hell. If they could but realize that Devil 
means Badness, and Hell is the synonym of suffering 
and self-inflicted torture, the laugh would not be quite 
so loud and long, nor the finger-snapping near so fre- 
quent, as at present. 

Such persons reason very superficially — in this re- 
spect following the lead of one of their self-elected 
Prophets, a Regent of Hell itself, and Earthly Prime 



142 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

Minister to all the chief fiends of the Middle States — 
and leap to the conclusion that all a man's sins are 
atoned for while embodied — that he is not to be pun- 
ished at all after death ; and hence they cut off all re- 
straining cords, give a loose rein to boasting and lying, 
and solace themselves and blind others with the absurd 
sophism that ( Whatever is, is right 7 — murder, robbery, 
eoncubinage, divorcing two, three, or a dozen, for the 
sake of obscene dalliance, and semi-legal infamy — are 
just the thing to rid the world of evil and make society 
a bond of fraternal fellowship ! And such a system 
dares to call itself ' Spiritual/ ' Harmonial, ' Reform- 
atory ? ! It does. But, thank God ! the days of Pseudo- 
Spiritualism, in whose train myriads of insanities, 
wrongs, irreligious of all pestilent sorts, non-immortal- 
ism, and a host of importations from the pit, follow as 
harlots follow an army, scattering death, horror and de- 
vastation on every hand ! Yes, thank Heaven ! the 
false will soon be succeeded by a true and godly Spir- 
itualism ; and instead of being possessed and obsessed 
by the maleficent harpies from the mid-region, as is too 
often the case now, people will be enlightened, in- 
structed and saved from ruin, instead of being plunged 
therein ; for the noble, the true, the religious and pure 
spirits, from realms where God's presence sanctifies all 
hearts, will come to aid man in his hour of greatest 
need. The true spiritualization will bring peace on 
earth and good will among men, instead of hatred be- 
tween couples, and absurd envyings and jealousies 
amongst mediums and believers ; it will effect the de- 
struction of all spiritualistic and philosophic pretence, 
the current sophistry of l All-rightism/ pretentious cant 
and mock philanthropy, whereof so much now floats 



■ * ' DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 143 

upon the surface of the singular sea called, falsely, 
1 Spiritualism. 1 A man is no more a Spiritualist be- 
cause he believes in physically demonstrated immor- 
tality, than a child is a horse because born in a stable. 

If people cannot be Spiritualists without submitting 
to the pestilent control of wretches from the Middle 
State, or without losing conscience, virtue, and moral 
cleanliness, they had better let the whole subject alone, 
and rest as contented as may be with the faiths and 
creeds bequeathed by their ancestors. It will not do to 
meddle with things so mysterious as Spiritualism, in its 
nature, influence and results, unless perfectly fortified 
in God, with a strong and holy purpose and a resolute 
and unbending will. 

As I gazed out upon the surrounding glories of my 
new world, I could not forbear or repress a desire, if 
possible, to take one glance at those who yet dwelt in 
infamy, although disembodied. This wish, though a 
silent one, was perceived by him who stood near me. 
Sadly, mournfully, he gazed down into my soul, made 
no reply in words, but slowly placing me between him- 
self and Nellie, who had been joined by one to whom 
she was very dear indeed, directed our ste]5s towards 
the pleasant grove before alluded to. Passing swiftly 
through this, we soon came to its outer verge, from 
which, to my utter astonishment, we could look down 
into a very gulf of horrors, as if from the edge of a 
frightful precipice. I knew that I stood upon the bor- 
ders of the Middle State. Believing that more is to 
be gained by descriptions of the good and excellent than 
by exciting the horror of deformity, I forbear, in this 
introductory volume, to recount the terrors of the awful 
Hell of the vicious and the self-damned soul. 



144 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

Suffice it that I beheld scenes of lust, insanity, de- 
bauchery, and all vileness, sufficiently dreadful to appal 
the stoutest heart of any sane one who dwells in the 
same awful phantasies, insanities and evils. Around 
the heads of those who wandered up and down its noi- 
some lanes and alleyways, were wreaths of twining, 
writhing serpents, instead of crowns and coronets of 
light. There were many who believed in literal hells 
of fire, and such were surrounded by spheres of flame, 
and therein must burn and suffer so long as the fearful 
phantasy shall last, and till they be redeemed by self- 
effort . Drunkards, libertines, gamblers — all evil things 
and persons were there, along with atheists and other 
intellectual sinners. On an eminence in the midst of 
the deepest and most fearful hell, I saw the exact image 
of one of earth's so-called great philosophers; and it 
was given me to know that the man there represented 
was doomed, when his life on earth shall be ended, to 
expiate his terrible offences against God, nature, reli- 
gion, and his own conscience, and his fellow-men, by 
sufferings too terrible to be adequately described. 

" Men inow the right, and well approve it too ; 
They know the wrong, and yet the wrong pursue." 

So with the philosopher. The man knew better than 
he taught ; and when he dies, unless he shall repent, 
his doom is a hell whose terrors are indeed fearful ; nor 
will he be able to emerge thence, before the cries of his 
scores of thousands of deluded victims, some of whom 
have been driven to vice, crime, insanity and suicide by 
his execrable teachings, shall be changed into appeals 
to God in his behalf. 

One of the punishments after death consists in atoning 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 145 

for one's bad and baleful influence while on earth ; and 
the more extensive this has been, the more fearful the 
penalty self-inflicted therefor. The man who has taught 
millions that God is a revengeful being ; that He ever 
stands ready to hurl ruin and destruction on the world ; 
to rain literal fire and brimstone on the earth, and thus 
frighten people into woe and insanity, must abide the 
consequences, and in the world beyond be compelled to 
face the dreadful music himself may have evoked. And 
so with others, let their influence be what it may. Eter- 
nal justice rules the destiny of mankind ; and sooner or 
later its behests must and will be accomplished. 

I turned in affright from the horrible scene, but not 
without reaping a mental treasure from what I had 
beheld, both of the Soul-world and the Middle-state. It 
will be remembered that I had asked certain questions, 
which were not responded to. These questions, and 
others had been uppermost in my mind all along, and 
now ' as our faces were once again turned toward the 
bright scenes of the Soul-world, I realizedthat neither 
it nor its fearful antipodes were absolute fixtures or 
fixities. The human soul is kaleidescopic. The scenes 
it forever conjures up before it from out its mighty deeps, 
and by which it is surrounded, are constantly and for- 
ever changing, no matter whether its locality be on 
earth, in the mid-region of the-great world's atmosphere, 
on the confines of the two great states, embodied or 
free ; or whether it be a dweller in the city of divine 
souls, the law is the same and incessantly operative. 
Change is written on all things ; and although in es- 
sence soul can never alter, yet its moods and phases 
constantly do, else Hell would be a permanency, Earth 
stand still r and Heaven itself grow monotonous. In 
7 



146 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

accordance with this principle, therefore, no scene in 
the Soul-world is a permanency, but as soon as one has 
produced all the joy it can to those from whom it is an 
outgrowth or projection, it changes, but ever toward 
the higher and more resplendent. 

One question there was, of great weight and import- 
ance,- which I asked of my soul, and to which a response 
after a time flowed in. It was this : Do spiritual beings 
live eternally as distinct entities, or are they after a 
time absorbed into Deity, as the higher Brahmins and 
other orientalists maintain ? The reply to this was : 
Reasoning from what any human being hioivs, no matter 
how lofty he may be in intellect, the decision arrived at 
must be conjectural at best ; for whether we are to be 
forever, can only be known to Him who taketh no one 
into his counsels. But reasoning from what we already 
know concerning the nature of soul, mind, thought, and 
capacity, the inference is plain that no absolute absorp- 
tion will ever take place, but that the double-unit man 
will forever preserve his distinct and marked person- 
ality. 

Are idiots immortal ? .Answer — All that is born of 
human parents, all beings who took their external forms 
through the agency and channels of the male brain, 
nerves, prostate and testes, and the female matrix, are 
necessarily immortal. 

Question — But animals have been impregnated by 
male brutes of the human species, and human females 
have borne offspring to brutes — if human medical testi- 
mony, and the confessions of parties implicated are to 
be credited ; but whether such cases have or have not 
occurred, suppose it were to take place, would such off- 
spring, whether begotten of, or by an animal, one of the 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 147 

parents being undoubtedly human, be immortal ? An- 
swer — As monsters, no ! Idiots, both of whose parents 
are human, are essentially immortal. Idiotcy is but 
another name for Y ea ^ ne ss ; and a monad having once 
put forth its powers sufficient to build itself a full hu- 
man body, no matter how imperfect, must necessarily put 
forth more of its inherent energies, if not in one world 
or sphere, then in another, in the nurseries of the Soul- 
world ; and as it grows strong it gradually approaches 
the point of self-ness — the Ego will be attained. It is 
only a question of time and condition. Not so with 
semi-brutes. 

Question — But women have conceived from human 
union, yet owing to some accident or fright, have brought 
forth monsters. Are these immortal? Answer — No. 
thing that is not human is immortal, in the sense of 
self-poisedness, and self-presence. If these monsters 
are cerebrally human, and their malformation be merely 
limb-distortion, then that thing is destined to super- 
mundane existence. 

Question — But human bodies, though brainless ones, 
have been born of women ? — Well, they are not immor- 
tal. Violent chemical actions en utero has destroyed 
the conditions of successful monad -gestation, while per- 
petuating the vegetative fcetcd life. Of course the 
thing is soulless. 

Question — But the monad had begun to put forth its 
energies. What then has become of it ; is it forever 
blotted out of being ? Answer — There stands a human 
female, but the body you see is not herself. The soul is 
her, not the flesh it wears. The monsters treated of in 
medical works are but the product of body — not of soul. 
In order to an immortality, the germ or monad must 



148 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

pass from the spiritual atmosphere interflowing the 
material or oxygenic one, into the nostras and brains 
and soul of a male, thence through the parts and pro- 
cesses already mentioned. Now the human form born 
brainless is of the nature of an abortion ; and the ques- 
tion arises, are abortions immortal ? The answer is : 
A human germ, when first planted at the gestative 
center, undergoes a variety of rapid and extraordinary 
changes, assuming successively the typal forms of all 
the lesser orders of animated nature, from the jelly-fish 
t© the perfectly human. In some women these pro- 
cesses are pushed with extraordinary vigor and speed, 
so that at the end of a very short period the foetus pos- 
sesses all the requisites for permanency except physical 
vigor. If then abortion takes place, the nursling is 
provided for and grows to comparative perfection, in 
the Soul-worlds of course. Such beings constitute a 
distinct and separate order of souls, and are, by the 
great soul law, condemned to come to earth, and by 
association and affiliation with embodied persons, 
through magnetic rapport, experience the pleasures and 
pains of self- development. These spirits will be treat- 
ed of hereafter, when I come to write concerning " The 
Realm of the Fay." 

But to our subject. If abortion take place before 
the monad has, in the womb, put forth its powers to a 
degree therein the human characteristics rise above all 
the lower forms, before its shape is perfectly formed, 
then immortality d^es not follow. 

But what becomes of the monad, the germ, the human 
point, the divine spark, the pivot ? Answer — It re- 
mains with and in the fcetal body till dissolution and 
decay shall set it free. Whereupon it floats again In 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 149 

the spiritual atmosphere, until it is inhaled by a human 
male again, whereupon it is, perhaps, and perhaps not, 
sent forth upon its mission once again. 

Question — We sometimes see double men, as the twins 
of Siam ; and others still more remarkable, as one body 
with two heads ; are there two souls also ? Answer — 
Every true human brain contains a true and independ- 
ent human soul. All men's brains contain vast numbers 
of monads ; hundreds of these seek incarnation on every 
occasion, but only one or two, very rarely three or more, 
succeed at that time I The rest, those that fail, float 
about as before. 

Question — At what period of life do men begin to at- 
tract these monads? Answer — At puberty, owing to pecu- 
liar chemical changes in the physical constitution ; and 
females are capable of receiving and nursing them when 
a corresponding change has taken place in them. 

Question — Can impregment occur without physical 
contact ? Answer — Yes ; by aid of artificial means, a 
monad may be successfully introduced, and life ensue ; 
but a very weak and imperfect life it must be, of ne- 
cessity. 

Having once entered upon this grand subject, I deter- 
mined to make the series of questions nearly, if not 
quite, exhaustive ; and, therefore, continued my inquiries, 
receiving answers as before — for, be it again repeated, 
no well-meaning human being can possibly ask a ques- 
tion, the answer to which is not recorded somewhere 
upon the secret tablets of the soul. In response to further 
interrogatories, many grand truths came flowing forth 
into the halls of consciousness ; and, amongst other things, 
I learned that the purpose of sex on the earths was pure 
cohabitation, in proper human and God-sanctioned mar- 



150 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

riage, with prolification, or soul-incarnation, as the re- 
sult. But I also saw that this purpose was accom- 
plished on earth, and that that use of sex was ended at 
death ; that it absolutely does not exist in the Soul- 
world. But in the Middle State, as a terrible phan- 
tasy, lust and all other abominations abound ; and I 
saw that one great cause of the moral looseness of thou- 
sands of sensitive-nerved people on earth resulted from 
the infernal possessions and obsessions' of their persons 
by delegations from those realms of darkness and — to 
all but themselves — unmitigated horror. A sensitive 
man or woman — no matter how viriuously inclined — 
may, unless by prayer and constant watchfulness they 
prevent it, and keep the will active and the sphere en- 
tire, be led into the most abominable practices and hab- 
its. Many of these denizens of the mid-regions of space 
are insane — in the higher sense all are so — and to them 
lust and its gratifications, dram-drinking, and mal-prac- 
tice of all sorts, is a reality, although to others they are 
cruel phantasies. The belief of these unfortunates re- 
sults from their former habits, voluntary self-illusion, 
and their old memories and associations, and they are 
devil-kings, gamblers, and keepers of seraglios — some- 
thing on the same principle that a straw-crowned maniac 
is to himself, and other of his ilk, a regal and potent 
brow-gemmed monarch — a species of insanity generally 
the result of personal excess and congenital disease ; 
and one, also, that it is very difficult to cure, either in the 
Spirit-world or anywhere else, for the reason that no 
man can be healed,' morally or physically, from or by 
external applications ; the recreative work must be 
commenced and carried on from within, or not at all. 
Are the destinies of all human beings parallel ? An- 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 151 

swer — No. On earth there are seven distinct orders 
of mankind, and so there is beyond it. It is diffi- 
cult to name these last without resorting to Orien- 
tal terms ; but, as these will serve to convey something 
of the truth, I will attempt to classify them as follows : 
1st, Spirits — Angels; 2nd, Seraphs; 3rd, Arsaphs; 
4th, Eons ; 5th, Arsasaphs ; 6th, Arch-Eons ; 7th, The 
Antarphim. 

Is this all ? No. For the highest of the last five 
orders ultimate in a Perfection whereof the human mind 
cannot conceive. They become Deions, a supreme or- 
der of creative intelligences and energies, whose power, 
in combination, is only second to that of the Infinite 
- God Himself. These constitute the towering hierarchy 
of the supernal Heaven. Their number is infinite. Nor 
hath ever a man born on earth reached nearer their 
glorious state than the second on the list, (Seraphs). 

They are creative energies, you say ; if so, where is 
the field of their activities ? Answer — The Amorphous 
Universe, circumvolving the material creation ! 

Is space then bounded ? Yes ! 

By what ? I have just answered. 

But what proof is there that this tremendous state- 
ment is correct? Answer — The nebulous masses re- 
vealed by the telescope ; masses constantly being ladled 
out, so to speak, of the immense sea of nascent matter, 
by the awful powers to whom that mighty task is as- 
. signed, and by those same powers changed or condensed 
into fire-mist, fire, cometary bodies, suns, planets, life- 
bearing earths ! 

Then man is, in very deed, almost a — God ? — You 
have said ! 



152 DEALINGS WITH THE BEAD. 

He creates worlds, and becomes the deity of Ms cre- 
ation ? — Man is a godling ! 

These were a few of the answers that came to me, as 
we turned from the precipice, and moved once more 
toward the sylvan grove ! 

Measured by earthly clocks, I had been but two hours 
in the Soul-world, but felt that I had endured for cen- 
turies. 

I soon discovered the reason of this. There is, as 
said before, a great sympathetic chain extending from 
soul to soul, over and through all past time, and up to 
God likewise ; and on the plane of this great Sympathia, 
at every point, some one stands ; that some one can scan 
the past, the present, and the future, just in proportion 
to his or her unfolding ; and the true blending of that 
soul with some other, puts this last in possession of all 
the other may have attained. I loved and was loved 
by one who stood high thereon, and the intuitions of my 
soul were quickened by his presence. 

Purity is the price of power. * * *JL * Years of 
earth have passed since that auspicious opening of the 
inner life. Much greater and higher knowledge has 
since flowed into my soul, portions of which will, ere 
long, be given to the world by the -same pen which in- 
dited every line this book contains — save the preface. 
At present I am, with Mifoe, endeavoring to gain wis- 
dom, as hand in hand, heart bound up in heart, and soul 
blended with soul, we together are happily, joyously, 
climbing up the sky. 

c. T. 






PART SECOND. 

THE DISENTHRALMENT. 

The Duke. Good Palmer, is thy tale so wondrous strange ? 
Palmer. Else had I not sought auditor so wise. 

'Tis the best legend ever yet was heard, 

Unless I mar it sadly in the telling. 

Something very unusual has taken place within a 
little while ; what it is can scarcely be told, can only 
dimly be understood, and still more vaguely conveyed 
to others. This change, this mysterious something, 
pertains not to body, but to soul, to the inner person ; 
and while the flesh-form is apparently as ever, the 
strange inhabitant thereof is conscious that it is not as 
of yore ; — nay, has passed, as it were, within these few 
latter days, into a new mood or phase of its wonderful 
being. 

But a little while ago, the world — this stony world — 
was far dearer and more highly prized than it is to- 
day ; and this for the reason that not now, as then, does 
the airy dweller of the body-house look out upon it as 
of yore ; — no longer glances over its mountains, vales 
and salt seas from the windows near the ground. 

It grew suddenly tired of the weight, and gloom, and 
lead-heavy air — air so light-distorting, which circulates 



154 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

just above the surface — just high enough to be breathed 
by those who move along the by-lanes of Vanity Fair : 
and the Soul took a key from its girdle, and therewith 
unlocked the door which alone had prevented its ascen- 
sion to the upper story of the Temple ; and it saw the 
steps leading toward the Dome — and they were broad, in- 
viting, well carpeted and lighted. Up the steps it went, 
and presently reached a lofty apartment, within which 
there fell a flood of glorious effulgence ; and this light 
was clear, and pure, and pearly white ; and it streamed 
into the apartment, — this upper chamber of the soul, — 
through a glorious arched window, toward which it 
drew near, and lo ! all the world looked different, as 
did the stars that hung out upon the night, and the 
beautiful pale moon, and God's rockets — the meteors 
—so beautiful ! 

There was an occupant of that chamber, one who had 
been slumbering on a couch therein for many, many 
years ; but the grating of the door upon its rusted 
hinges and the rattle of the keys disturbed this sleeper, 
and woke it up. The being was a female — so very beau- 
tiful that I loved her from the first, for she was very 
beautiful , and came to me, threw her fair white arms 
about my neck, kissed my forehead tenderly, told me 
that she had slept too long, pent up in that chamber all 
alone. 

And I loved her dearly, because she was so very 
pure, so virginal, so fresh and innocent, and withal so 
very beautiful ! I asked her name. " It is Devotion," 
she replied. Then folding me to her bosom, her tender, 
loving bosom, she gently drew me nearer to the win- 
dow, pointed down toward the ground, and said : " The 
air is thick, and dank, and dark, and dense, and very 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 155 

murky. It is difficult to catch a glimpse of the bright 
orb of the Heavens, or to feel his genial ray down there, 
in that thick and heavy air ; but here, up here, the 
atmosphere is purer, and, if you look well and steadily 
through that pane, you will see the Spirit of God as He 
moves across the mighty deep !" And I looked. A 
great Glory was at that moment marching across the 
whole bright sky — a mystic but a nameless glory — and 
the night was very grand ; the emotions it awoke were 
very soft and tender, so that tears welled up at the 
sight from the heart of Devotion, and suffused her 
beautiful features. Oh, magic tears ! One pearly drop 
fell on me, and lo ! the icebergs of my soul were melted, 
and — I wept ; — and the waters, as they flowed, swept 
away many an obstacle that had thereunto impeded and 
obstructed my vision, and soon I was able to see the 
Spirit of God in everything that He had made. Seeing 
which, the Beautiful Maiden gently chided me for so 
long delaying the coming up the stairs and the entering 
of that wondrous upper chamber whose windows look 
out upon the world below and toward the God above. 
And she told me how happy I might have been in the 
years agone, had not the lower strata of the atmosphere 
hurt my vision, and if I had unlocked the great door 
sooner. I asked the lovely one to reveal the methods 
by which, when I descended again, the recollection 
of the present golden hour might never be effaced. 
Sweetly she answered : " All that is necessary is to 
look toward the Dawn, and 

" When the dance of the Shadow at daylight is done, 
And the cheeks of the Morning are red with the Sun ; 
When at eve, in his glory, he sinks from the view, 
And calls up his planets to blaze in the blue, 
Then pour out thy spirit in praver. 



156 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

" When the beautiful bend of the Bow is above, 
Like a collar of light on the bosom of Love, 
When the moon in her brightness is floating on high, 
Like a Banner of silver hung out in the Sky, 
Then pour out thy spirit in prayer. 

" In the depths of the darkness unvaried in hue, 
WTien shadows are veiling the breast of the blue, 
When the voice of the Tempest at midnight is still, 
And the Spirit of Solitude sobs on the hill, 
Then pour out thy spirit in prayer. 

" In the dawn of the morning when Nature's awake, 
And calls up her Chorus to chaunt in the brake, 
7 Mid the voice of the echo unbound in the woods, 
'Midst the warbling of streams, and the foaming of floods, 
Then pour out thy spirit in prayer. 

" Where by the pure streamlet the pale lily bends, 
Like Hope o'er the grave of affectionate friends, 
When each star in the sky to the bright fancy seems 
Like an island of light, in an ocean of dreams, 
Then pour out thy spirit in prayer. 

" When the Tempest is treading the paths of the deep, 
And the Thunder is up from his cloud-cradled sleep, 
When the Hurricane sweeps o'er the earth in his wrath, 
And leaveth the footprints of God in his path, 
Then pour out thy. spirit in prayer." 

And I prayed. 

Since that day* Devotion has been the solace of 
many and many a weary hour ; for when grief and 
pain and sorrow with their train afflict the soul, it 
remembers the key-note and the key, and that glorious 
upper chamber, with the great Glory that swept the 
Heavens, even from the rising of the sun to the going 
down thereof. 

These were the circumstances which brought about 



* Fefe. 4th, JL8GJ, 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 157 

the change. It. gives a singularly sweet and placid 
conviction that ^my long, long night of pain-life is 
nearly past, the agony-hours nearly at their close ; and 
so, feeling now emboldened and nerved to the task, the 
fulfilling of a design long entertained, I determined to 
mould into the following form certain of my 

DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

In presenting what follows, wisdom dictates the nar- 
rative style rather than any other, for the reason that it 
is better calculated to entertain, interest, and instruct 
the reader. 

Not a few people, nor those of the least informed 
class either, entertain many serious doubts as to the 
nature, per durability, immortality, and eternality of the 
humaa soul. Of the last, probably no one in the body 
can ever be absolutely certain and assured ; but of the 
former, all may be ; not, perhaps, by means of what 
herein ensues concerning the points named, but by rea- 
son of that greater knowledge whereof what follows is 
the key. I present the subjoined as seriously as could 
anything be. To my soul the truths here revealed, 
transcribed from the experimental knowledge- tablets of 
that very soul itself, are priceless, and worth as much 
more than what people generally receive and accept as 
truth, from sources whose external manifestation is 
through the 'Spiritualism 7 of the day, as these last are 
more valuable than the mere guesses at the truth of im- 
mortality, current previous to the advent of * The Fox 
and Fish Dynasty/ 

Some six hundred and fifty years, more or less, before 
the birth of Jesus of Nazareth — praises be to his name 
forever ! — in the thirty-fifth Olympiad, or about two 
thousand five hundred years ago, there lived in the East 



158 DEALINGS WITH THE BEAD. 

a famous philosopher, known to lis through history as 
Thales, the Milesian ; and there is no doubt but that he 
was one of the first, if not the very first man of great 
mental rank and caliber, who publicly taught the doc- 
trine of human immortality. 

Doubtless the same general train of nBasoning re- 
sorted to by Thales was nearly, if not quite, identical 
with that which constitutes the basis of nearly all hu- 
man hope to-day, if we except the modern ' Spiritual 7 
theory, which, while very comforting and satisfactory 
to great numbers, is far from being so to millions more ; 
for there are quite a number of questions which a doubting 
man may ask of those who predicate an hereafter upon 
the evidence furnished by the ' Spiritualism 7 of the day, 
which those who are asked are not able to clearly and 
satisfactorily answer. To many, the reasoning of the 
'Spiritualists/ like that of the ancient, amounts to " It 
is quite possible that human beings are immortal ;" and 
that is all. Many a man and woman are dying daily 
deaths from the fearful doubts that constantly arise as 
to the truth of the Immortality of the Soul ; doubts, too, 
that will still insist on coming up, in spite of the start- 
ling phenomena of the l manifestations ? whose origin is 
attributed to disembodied men and women ; they still 
leave an aching void — a void which I am about 4o at- 
tempt to fill ; and, I believe, successfully. 

After the great Milesian, came other philosophers- 
men of genius and intuition — who had dim and indis- 
tinct glimmerings of the great truth. Peeling, rather 
than seeing, that there must be a life beyond the body, 
they strove to impress their convictions upon others ; 
yet the sum total still amounted to but a probability, at 
best. As a result of the great search for light upon 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 159 

this mighty subject, many glimmerings of the truth were 
seen, but they were glimmerings only. By-and-by came 
Plato upon the stage of the world's theater. He pro- 
duced ' Phasdo 9 — a great work, considering the times 
in which it first saw the light. It still remains so ; and 
yet, so acute is the logical faculty of the people of the 
present era, that even that work fails of convincing. 
It is, viewed by the modern light, far, very far from be- 
ing a satisfactory performance, considering the immense 
importance and sublimity of the theme it professes to 
treat ; yet, nevertheless, Plato did succeed in convinc- 
ing many of the people of the by-gone ages, as well as 
of the present, that he had indeed struck the golden 
vein at the bottom of which the wondrous jewel lies, 
and in establishing a crude conviction of that great 
truth, which the present century will doubtless have the 
supreme honor of perfectly demonstrating. In the final 
conclusion, to which the world will shortly come, the 
author of these pages firmly believes that the elements 
herein given will enter as integers — as a portion and 
part absolutely essential to the perfect structure. 

Plato, not unlike many of our modern savans, seems 
to have been sorely troubled — not so much in proving 
the immortality of the soul, as in assigning it a proper 
habitation after death. But the soul, like the body, 
must have a home, he thought, and so he concluded to 
locate that home within the boundaries of the 'New 
Atlantis Isle/ situated, nobody, not -£ven the great 
thinker himself, knew where. The same difficulty pre- 
sents itself to-day ; a thousand theories, or, more prop- 
erly speaking, hypotheses, are now sifloat on the surface 
of the general mind, concerning the locality of the- 
Divine City of Spirits — the home of departed souls. 



160 DEALIN&S WITH THE DEAD. 

The great majority of these suppositions are too mate- 
rial, crude, shallow and baseless, on their very faces, to 
even challenge the attention of a thinker for a single 
moment ; others are too far-fetched ; and not one of 
them all is there, but presents itself in the face of a 
dozen objections, from every one of ten thousand ob- 
jectors. 

That this assertion may not appear groundless, and 
seem to be dictated by improper reasoning, let us merely 
glance at the three theories held by the people who 
claim to know most about the matter — i Spiritualists/ 
One of the lights of that class gravely informs us that 
the spiritual world is located quite a distance on the 
other side of 'The Milky Way ;' he and his disciples 
affirm that spirits can and do come back to earth daily ; 
that our desires draw them, and that they, being there 
and feeling us draw them, instantly quit the land of 
bliss, and flit toward us, accomplishing the distance in 
* no time at all f which very indefinite period we may 
safely assume to be three or four hours, more or less. 
Now, light coming from the nearest fixed star at the 
rate of two hundred thousand miles a minute, cannot 
reach us in less than eighteen years — while light from 
any star on the further side of the same great belt of 
suns, requires a period of time too vast for us to com- 
prehend, ere it can gladden our eyes. 

The Spirits 7 dwelling, according to this school, lies 
beyond even those vastly distant orbs. Supposing, how- 
ever, that it exists in the neighborhood of the nearest 
star, any spirit who gets here after a journey of three 
hours, must travel through space at not less than the 
rate of twelve thousand three hundred and eighty-seven 
millions of miles during every second of the aivful 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD.* . 161 

journey ! — a speed that would annihilate any being less 
than God himself. What an idea ! 

The next theory, originated and advocated by the 
same person* is, that the Spirits' home is on a sort of 
aerial belt Gircumvolving our globe. Said belt is fifty 
miles thick ; spirits live on its upper surface, which is 
very like this earth, seeing that it has cities, houses, 
streets, waters, oceans, rivers, trees, beasts, birds, and 
reptiles. At the poles of the earth, according to this 
same self-dubbed philosopher and his ' school/ there are 
certain openings or large holes, through which the 
spirits come and go just when it suits them so to do. 
When they depart hence, they go 'head up/ of course ; 
and when they come to us, they must approach ' head- 
foremost? or with their feet toward their home — a very 
immodest way for some spirits to travel, if the dignit}^ 
of their sex is still retained — and a very undignified 
mode of traveling for the philosophers and magnates 
who so often talk to and at us, through the lips of mod- 
ern eolists. 

This, like the former theory, is unsatisfactory — but 
mainly on the ground of its gross materiality, for it 
makes the second life but a new edition of the first one. 
Common sense must reject this last. Of the two, the 
first theory is incomparably the most magnificent and 
grand. The fault is, that it is too much so ; for it re- 
moves us at one leap from the condition of humanity, 
and at once endows us with the attributes and power 
of veritable gods. 

The next hypothesis concerning the matter is, that 
this world (our globe) is, and must, and will for all eter- 

* A man who] knows most when fast asleep, and then knows hut 
very little. 






162 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

nitj be, the abiding place and scene of activity of all 
mankind, who ever have been or will be born on it, 
through all the past and all the future ages. Accord- 
ing to this school (if I may so dignify it), Spirits are 
here dwelling amongst us, taking note of all things that 
occur, — are eating, drinking, and doing all that we do. 

Now, there is more common sense and reasonableness 
in these latter notions than in all the rest ; for of the 
many guesses at the truth, this comes nearest to the 
mark. The faults which this theory has, are, however, 
very bad ones ; for, first, it materializes the soul ; sec- 
ond, it confines it here, nor even permits it to leave its 
prison, to roam the starry fields ; and, third, it does in- 
justice to God and His omnipotence, inasmuch as it 
practically doubts His providence, limits His power, 
and assumes that He was incompetent to provide spir- 
itual homes for spiritual beings, and was compelled to 
make this a double world. If a spirit occupies any 
space at all, then, if this theory be true, not only is the 
surface above ground one compact mass of Spirits, but 
they form piles extending far higher than our loftiest 
mountains ; for, since men have begun to die, they have 
continued to .pass away at the rate of scores of millions 
every year for at least a hundred centuries. 

I could not help disposing of this doctrine by means 
of the argumentum ad absurdum, for it was, and ever 
will be, totally unworthy of any more respectful treat- 
ment ; and yet, as said before, it contains far more truth 
than either of the others, as will very shortly be, if not 
already herein seen. 

People who lived in the days of Plato, Thales, and 
the great men of the olden time, could not have the 
same notions that we have ; could not understand many 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 163 

of the wonders which we, in this age, fully comprehend. 
They could not conceive of a balloon, railroad, locomo- 
tive, steamship, photo-picture, or telegraph, for the very 
plain and simple reason that the human brain had not, 
as a general thing, then unfolded many of its wonder- 
ful and mighty powers. Its immense capacities were 
as yet nascent, latent, still. True, the seeds of all that 
it has since proved were there, but in embryo only. In 
other words, the soul had not the requisite brain-organs, 
through which it could familiarize itself with all or any 
of the marvelous tilings just enumerated. So now, in 
these days, men and women worry themselves a great 
deal concerning the locus in quo of their fleshless friends, 
about the Deity or no-Deity question, and a hundred 
others of the like, not the least important of which is 
that concerning the nature, origin, and final destiny 
of the soul itself. Presently, in the years of the race, 
if not in those of the individuals on earth to-day, the 
requisite brain-organs will be developed, the proper 
function of which shall be the furnishing of the soul 
with what it wants, in order to take notice of, and com- 
prehend the principles underlying its own existence, 
here and hereafter. Till then, the facts it sees must be 
admitted, even while many of the bases of these very 
facts remain involved in impenetrable mystery. It must 
take many things for granted — its own immutability in- 
cluded — in many instances, without any very perfect or 
intimate knowledge of the why ? — on the cogito, ergo sum 
principle. 

To return to the ancient philosopher : It may be re- 
marked that, although he had a vague notion of- a con- 
v scious life of the soul subsequent to the dissolution of 
its corporeal investiture, yet, unquestionably, the sort 



164 .DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

of post mortem existence, which he conceived, and Im- 
mortality — as the brightest intellects of the present age 
understand it — are two very dissimilar states or modes 
of being, and widely different in principle r value, nature, 
and results. 

It may be well to present an abstract and brief chroni- 
cle of the Platonic idea, in order to clearly indicate the 
divergences. 

To say nothing concerning Plato's doctrine of the 
Metempsychosis, or the Transmigration of soul from body 
to body — (which doctrine contains some truth, as doth 
"nearly every notion man entertains > and which took 
its rise in the plains of Chaldea, was there found and 
adopted by the great Zerdusht, or Zoroaster, from whom 
Plato borrowed it) — we will merely glance at certain 
others of his recorded opinions. According to Plato, 
the soul is double — that is to say, both material and 
spiritual ; all souls pre-existed ; originally, they were 
inhabitants of Heaven, a place somewhere in the sky, 
whence they emigrated to the earth ; their sole mis- 
sion is to become " developed," which process is effected 
in this wise : Each soul must animate successively a 
prodigious number of bodies, every stage of their ca- 
reer occupying not less than a " period/ 7 which may be 
set down as one hundred years, and must be repeated 
an incalculable number of times ; they then return 
whence they came — to Heaven ; are permitted by the 
gods to remain there for an allotted term, after the ex- 
piration of which, they are again compelled to go forth 
and occupy successive bodies, as before. Consequently, 
all human souls are, according to the Platonic theory, 
destined to nearly an everlasting repetition of the same 
general processes, are fated to an almost endless round 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 165 

of defilements and purifications ; of returns to Heaven, 
and dismissals to earth — not to speak of sundry sojourns 
in very bad localities on the route. 

Plato taught that these souls do not entirely forget 
their experiences, joys, sorrows or ambitions, hopes, 
cares and anxieties — in short, none of their varied ex- 
periences during the several incarnations ; and that all, 
or any portion of human knowledge, at any given point 
of time, was not the real acquisition of the present, as 
it seemed, but was composed merely of the memories, 
or reminiscences of innumerable past careers — the pres- 
sent recognition of facts and incidents which transpired 
in some pre-existent stage of their tremendous career. 
That these are truly magnificent notions, scarce any 
one who can truly grasp them will deny, even though 
to some persons they may appear to be the very quin- 
tessence of poetry. Transmigration, in some form, has 
^certainly been, if not hereafter to be, the lot of man. I 
do not believe the Platonic conception of this great 
truth to be the correct one, nor that man will ever un- 
dergo the doom again ; yet, that the soul has reached 
its present through many an inferior state, is a self-evi- 
dent fact to me. At all events, a formidable array of 
reasons might be presented to account for the faith that 
is within me. 

This idea of Plato's completely antagonizes two of 
the most celebrated dogmas that ever held the human 
reason captive : the first of which is the famous " Monad 
Theory" of Leibnitz, albeit he came very near the truth, 
as has been seen ; and the other, the modern doctrine, 
that souls, like bodies, are formed, made, created here ; 
and that their origin is a common one — en utero. 

Before the conclusion of the task assigned me, I shall 



166 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

have occasion to revert again to both of these latter 
doctrines. At present, let them pass. 

Plato maintained that the soul was Divines particu- 
him aurce, an emanation from God Himself, a portion of 
His immaculate Being, detached for a time only, and 
that after innumerable transmigrations it is re-absorb- 
ed into Himself again, and loses its own distinctive- 
ness. Of course, this notion, if it be true, instead of 
proving immortality, as Plato supposed, in fact dis- 
proves it altogether ; that is, if immortality be conceded 
to be a continuance of personal identity, and an indivi- 
dual duration, subsequent to the demise of the physical 
body. Immortality means a continued existence of the 
personality, and not a mere survival of the varied ele- 
ments whereof a human being* is composed. The parti- 
cular Deific emanations which constitute the souls of 
A, B, C and D, respectively, as soon as they become 
souls, are beings totally distinct from all else that 
exists, and must forever remain so ; and " soul" can be 
predicated of either, only as beings thus separate, and 
therefore immortality can be the prerogative of man only 
so long as God and man are not blended into one single 
Personality. So long as each soul shall think, feel, suffer, 
enjoy, cogitate and have a continuity of self-knowing, 
just so long will it be possessed of an invincible convic- 
tion of personal identity, under which circumstance 
alone, and only, can its immortality be truly predicated 
and affirmed. But, should any soul ever be re-absorbed 
into Deity — again become a portion of Divinity — an 
utter, total, and complete annihilation of the individual 
must ensue ; and that destruction of the human self- 
hood would be as effective, utter and complete, as if the 
varied elements entering into it as constituents were 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 167 

whirled absolutely out of the universe and into a blank 
nothingness. 

A tree sawed into planks is a tree no longer, although 
the wood, so far as mere essence is concerned, remains 
as before. The tree as a tree is ruined forever, albeit the 
wood of it may endure for centuries. To sum up : All 
the theories of the Platonists, the followers of Thales, 
and the disciples of every one of the ancient philoso- 
phers, as well as those of scores of the modern " Spirit- 
ualists/ 7 especially of that peculiar school who prate" 
of immortality and annihilation in one and the same, 
the very same breath, are unsatisfactory ; for, after all, 
their boasted demonstrations of immortality amount, in 
their final results and effects upon our minds, to but 
very little more than pleasing hopes, and fond desires, 
and longings after immortality ! In what follows I have 
endeavored to solve the problem, in a somewhat novel 
way, it must be admitted ; yet I am in earnest, and 
have worked up the materials at my command in the 
most effective manner that was possible. 



The belief in ghosts, spirits, apparitions, wraiths and 
doubles, is almost universal. Millions of people affect 
to disbelieve in them ; and yet, deep down in the soul- 
caverns of these identical millions may be found all that 
exists in the minds of the most credulous. Disbelief in 
such things is very near akin to the asserted creeds of 
atheism. Thousands there be who in words deny the ex- 
istence of a God ; and yet, let any one of these loud- 
mouthed sceptics become racked with a real, genuine, old- 
ashioned toothache, and ten to one he cries out " 0, 



168 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

Lord !" fifty times a day, and as often in the night begs 
God to have mercy upon his rack-tortured jaws. The 
fact is, there never yet was, there never will be, such a 
vara avis as a genuine atheist ; and in spite of all pro- 
testations ~to the contrary, there are but few who do 
not believe to some extent in the existence of spirits. 
As with the rest of the world, so with myself ; for, not- 
withstanding the chronic and hereditary scepticism of my 
nature, a scepticism as unbending as iron, as inflexible 
as stone, I, from early childhood, entertained a certain 
vague, indefinite belief in the existence of the spectral 
gentry of another world ; yet with this belief there was 
not the least realization in my mind, that the objects of 
my belief had the faintest or most distant relationship 
to the human people in flesh and blood whom I daily 
saw about me. There was nothing very singular in 
that, however, for I merely resembled the millions of 
to-day, who, while entertaining the most undoubted, 
and, in some respects, salutary belief in ghosts, yet prac- 
tically seem not to have the most distant idea that in so 
doing they are fully accepting the mystic's faith, — that 
these self-same ghosts are but the spirits of mortals 
who dwell beyond the veil. 

Even in my early days I strove, by inquiry and by 
reading such books upon the subject as fell in my way, 
to find out whether this earthly life was the only allot- 
ment of man, — poor, care-ridden, unhappy man, — or not. 
Child as I was, I felt the incompleteness of all subsolary 
things, and longed to know if our experiences here 
were or were not all -we had to hope for, or look for- 
ward to. The belief in ghosts did not help me any ; 
for that ghost and spirit were synonyms, never once 
struck my mind. To the innumerable questions pro- 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 169 

pounded by me to my elders, in the expectation of 
eliciting satisfactory replies, the old stereotyped re- 
sponse was given, — to wit : Mankind have souls, and 
these souls live when the body is dead and returned 
into the dust of the ground ; but what the soul was, 
whence it came, what was its nature, form, shape and 
size, and whither it went after the loss of its body, I 
could gain not the slightest information ; for every 
answer given me was as unsatisfactory as would be the 
Platonic theory to a modern philosopher of the trans- 
cendental order. 

After a while these repeated failures produced their 
legitimate fruit ; at first, a little doubt crept in, and 
challenged all I had gathered. It grew apace, and 
finally settled into a sort of atheism, from which I was 
happily rescued by my sister Harriet, and the good old 
Father Verella, a Spanish priest, by whom I was duly 
baptized and received into the bosom of the Roman 
Catholic Church, in my native city, New York. How 
long the connection lasted cannot now be told ; but 
something that occurred disgusted me, and forthwith 
the Pope had a new foe in my humble person. Years 
of doubt again succeeded after this relapse, during 
which the belief in ghosts grew stronger and still more 
strong. My mind became subject to certain peculiar 
states, — a sort of raptness, so to express it, — a condi- 
tion precisely identical with that now claimed by 
thousands in the land, to be spiritually induced. The 
supposition that it is so, may be correct, and it may be 
that this condition is the result of the development of 
a new sense or faculty in the mind. It matters not 
which, albeit I am inclined toward the latter hypothe- 
sis. In these states to which I became at times subject, 
8 



170 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

it seemed to me that I held converse with the ghosts, 
but for a long time was totally unable to realize that 
they were human spirits. Much of the history of my 
psychical life has for years been before the world, and 
therefore need not be repeated here ; consequently we 
will pass over several years, to the date of the first 
occurrence of the " Eochester Knockings." At the first 
opportunity that offered itself, I went to Litchfield, 
Michigan, at which place were two females in whose 
presence the strange noises were said to occur. I heard 
them, believed they were produced by a power outside, 
and independent of the girls, yet could hardly realize 
that human souls, disembodied, were the makers of the 
sounds. 

The result was an increased and intensified study, not 
only of the soul itself, so far as was possible by aid of 
an active intellect and quickened intuition, but also of 
its modes of action, its phases, and its moods. And, 
0, how my spirit loved to dwell upon its possibilities ! 
Was there any person in the country reputed to have 
a wealth of knowledge on matters pertaining to the 
spirit, I spared neither trouble nor expense ; but went 
forthwith to glean what I could from his or her precious 
stores. Of the " rappers," " tippers," and " table-turn- 
ers," I soon became wearied ; for, as a class, they 
amounted to but little, and, with one or two exceptions, 
proved unworthy of confidence. 

At last, I went to visit a city in New England, where 
was published a paper devoted to the illustration and 
diffusion of spiritual light, the editor of which soon be- 
came interested in me, (for people said that my ghost- 
seeing faculty was real, and that I had given incontesti- 
"ble proofs, not merely of the power indicated, but also 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 171 

of what they were pleased to call clairvoyance). While 
sojourning in this eastern city, I came across a series 
of crayon sketches, copied from an old English work 
by their possessor, illustrative of certain portions of the 
processes of cosmical formation, according to the Igni- 
genous Theory. One of these drawings represented a 
vortical sun, discharging from itself countless hosts of 
lesser suns— a world-rain from the eternal cornucopia. 
The idea, even if it be but an idea, is a magnificent — aye, 
a tremendous one, and it attracted my soul very strongly. 
Many and many an hour have I sat gazing raptly upon 
that bit of pasteboard, which to me told a story too 
supremely vast and grand to ever find expression in 
human types or language ; and often have I been lost in 
the lanes of the azure, when striving to reach that al- 
mighty center of flaming fire, Vhence starry systems 
rain down like snow-flakes in the wintry days. 

This particular crayon set me to thinking in right 
good earnest : as a result of which, it appeared that my 
psychical vision became intensified. Test after test was 
given of this power, until the list rolled up from tens to 
hundreds, and people said, " If these descriptions of 
dead persons, whom you have never seen when living, 
and whom you profess to behold now, are not proofs of 
both the immortality of the soul and the ability to scale 
the walls which divide this from the upper worlds, 
what in Heaven's name will prove them ? It must be 
true that you, and hundreds of others as well, do really 
penetrate the heretofore unlifted veil." The display 
of these powers satisfied others, but to myself they still 
remained the weary, weary A ? s and the barren, barren 
B's ; for, notwithstanding all that I had seen, heard and 
read on the subject of the soul's continuance, it was 



172 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

utterly impossible to actualize or realize my theoretic be- 
lief ; and this, too, at the very time that scores of per- 
sons, through the practical display of what I can but 
regard as a mere phase of psycho-vision, were trium- 
phing in a firm, solid, unshaken belief in an hereafter ; 
singular, was it not ? 

That the soul can, at times, act independent of the 
body, I am 'firmly convinced. We see daily proofs of 
it in the mesmerist's art, in mental telegraphy, and in 
various other ways ; this has long been an accepted fact. 
How often do we suddenly think of a person, who in- 
stantly thereafter enters our presence, his spiritual part 
having preceded the physical I How often do we visit 
places during sleep which, in other days, we recognize 
externally ! How frequently we dream of persons and 
things unknown to us, and subsequently encounter these 
very persons and things when wide awake ! Many per- 
sons possess this power of independent soul-action, and 
can exert it at will. The writer has often done so. 

The experience about to be related occurred at a 
period when the skeptical mood was on my soul ; and 
it overtook me as I wandered distractedly on the bor- 
ders of the region of Despair. But this experience, 
strange, fearful, and even terrible, as portions of it were, 
had a beneficial effect ; for it lifted my struggling soul 
to hights of grandeur and glory, from whose sublime 
summits my vision l swept the plains of immortality, 
and pierced the arcana of death itself! 7 

Had the wisdom-lessons taught in this immense ex- 
perience been duly profited by, as they ought, I should 
have escaped many and many a bitter hour. But, like 
the majority of people, I refused to learn in any but 
the severest of all schools. 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 173 

It so fell out upon a day, that, having taken my usual 
seat before a copy of the marvelous crayon previously 
alluded to, and which I had rudely sketched, I became 
impatient at my continual failures to comprehend the 
subject it represented. Generally this had not been the 
case. My mind, on that morning, was unusually clear 
and vigorous ; and yet, despite all efforts, I found it ut- 
terly impossible to comprehend the stupendous concep- 
tion — the Birth of a Universe. At last, heart-faint and 
sick at my failure, I abruptly rose from the chair, re- 
sumed my walking apparel, left the room, and strolled 
carelessly and mechanically up the street, and continued 
listlessly onward, until I found myself beyond the out- 
skirts of the city, and entering the open country. It 
was a bright, sunshiny day ; and after wandering about 
fbr nearly an hour, and beginning to feel a double op- 
pression — fatigue of body, for it was very weak and 
slender — and despondency of spirits — it struck me that 
I would turn short to the right, and lie down for a 
while beneath the grateful shade of a natural bower, 
on the borders of a forest clump, hard by. This I did ; 
and having reclined upon the rich, green turf, under the 
leafy canopy afforded by the trees — rare and stately old 
elms they were — abandoned myself at once to medita- 
tion, speculation and repose. How long I thus lay it 
is impossible to tell; it may have been one hour — it 
may have been two ' or three : all that I remember of 
the outer world of wakefulness is the framing of a series 
of questions, and, amongst others wherewith I interro- 
gated my deepest soul for responses, were these : M What 
is the immortality of man ? What is God ? Where 
does He dwell ? Is the life hereafter a continuance of 
this, or is it entirely different? Can it be only a shift- 



174 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

ing of world-scenes, or is it a change as widely apart 
from our earthly state as is this last from the existence 
before birth ?" These, and many similar questions, my 
soul propounded to itself, and sought, by an intense in- 
troversion of its faculties, to reach the penetralia of its 
being, where it instinctively felt convinced that all the 
momentous, answers were already registered. Long 
and persistently was this endeavor continued, until, for 
the first time in my life, I became aware of something 
very, very strange, and supremely interesting going on 
within me. This sensation was somewhat analagous to 
the falling off into a deep sleep, only that it was the body 
alone which lost its outward sensibility ; it was the 
physical senses only that became slowly and gradually 
benumbed and sealed, while the mighty senses beneath 
them appeared to intensify themselves, draw together, 
and coalesce in one grand All-sense ; and this contin- 
ued going on until it reached a strange and awful de- , 
gree, and a sensation as of approaching death stole over, 
and, for a little while, frightened and alarmed me. 

With all the clearness of reasoning that I ever possess- 
ed, I applied myself to the work of fathoming . what all 
this meant ; but the more strenuous the effort, the more 
signal the failure. Finding that the phenomenon taking 
place within, was governed by a law which pertained 
to soul-life alone, and that my ignorance of that mystic 
realm was too great and dense to permit a full compre- 
hension of the enigma, nothing remained but to submit, 
and learn, as time wore on ; and, accordingly, giving 
over all attempts to shake off that which, by this time, 
held my entire being within its mighty and resistless 
grasp, I abided patiently the result. 

Slowly as moves the ice-mounds of Switzerland came 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 175 

the sense of coldness over my limbs ; inch by inch the 
crafty hand of Mystery gained firmer hold. The feet, 
the limbs, the vitals, grew cold and leaden, until at last 
it seemed as if the ventricles of my heart and the blood 
within them were freezing, slowly, surely freezing ; and 
the terrible conviction forced itself upon me that I was 
gradually, but positively — dying ! 

Soon all sense of organization below the neck was 
lost, and the words 'limb, body, chest/ had no meaning. 
This was also true of the head generally, but not of a 
something within that head. The bodily eyes and ears 
were the last to yield themselves up to the influence 
of the strange, weird spell. 

With a last, perishing effort, I strove to look forth 
upon, and listen to the sounds of the world, now perhaps 
forever being left behind. What a doleful change in a 
few brief hours ! Where all had been serenely, calmly 
beautiful before, nothing was now visible but the huge, 
gaunt skeletons of forms I had seen glowing with living 
vqrdure but a little while ago ; the sunlight was changed 
from silver sheen to a pale and sickly yellow, tinged 
with ghastly green. The overhanging branches and 
profuse foliage of the trees hard by had altered their 
every aspect, and from stately monuments of God's 
goodness, had become transformed into spectral obe- 
lisks, upreared on the earth to tell the future ages that 
He had passed that way in savage and vindictive wrath, 
once upon a time. When I lay me down and gazed up 
into the beautiful heaven, the fleecy vapors were play- 
ing at cloud-gambols on the breast of the vault ; but 
now they were turned into funereal palls, heavy, black, 
and gloopiy as are the coverlets of Night ; and the 
busy hum of myriad insects, and the gentle murmur of 



176 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

the zephyr moving through the bushes, no longer pleased 
the ear by their soft, low buzz, but smote upon my part- 
ing soul like a last and dirgeful knell ; while the warb- 
lings of the plumed songsters of the wood sounded to 
my soul like the sepulchral chants of Eastern story. 
Very soon the deep black pall, hung out upon the face 
of heaven, began slowly and remorselessly to come down, 
down, down, until my nostrils snuffed the vapors and 
sensed the odors of the grave. The far-off horizon be- 
gan cautiously to approach me, shutting out first one 
window of the sky and then another, until at last but 
a little space of light was left ; and still the cloud-walls 
drew nearer, nearer still ; the darkness and the fetor 
grew more fearfully dense by degrees ; I gasped for 
breath ; the effort pained me, and was fruitless ; and the 
horrible agony consequent thereupon, for one moment 
re-illumed the brain ; and the dreadful possibility, nay, 
the probability, that I was to die there alone, with no 
loved hand to smoothe my brow, no lip to kiss me ' good- 
bye/ no tearful eye to watch my parting hour, sent a 
thrill along my brain almost too intense for endurance. 
The conviction that I must perish, uncared for by kind 
friends, out there in the wood, beneath the blue sky and 
the green trees, seized upon my soul, and the cold beads 
of perspiration that oozed from my brow and trickled 
down to the ground, attested the degree of mental agony 
I was undergoing. l Good-bye, all ye beauties of the 
sense-world ! farewell, all whom I have loved or been 
loved by! ? I mentally said; and then, by a strong 
effort of will, nerved my soul for its expected flight. 
Soon there came a thrill, a shudder, an involuntary 
' God, receive me ! J and I felt that I was across the 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 177 

Mysty River, and stood within the awful gates of— 
Eternity ! 

The majority of people imagine the Soul- world to be 
spatially (to coin a good word) outside of this sphere ; 
and so it is, in pne sense ; but in another, it is not. A 
notion of what I mean may be had by comparing the 
other and higher with certain phases of the true dream- 
life. The scenes of action of either are totally removed 
from both time and space, and yet the events of each 
are actual experiences of the soul ; for even in dream- 
life we suffer and enjoy quite as keenly as in the wake- 
ful world of grosser sense. A woman who sleeps and 
dreams, finds herself in two widely-different states within 
the four-and-twenty hours. Now, the normal spiritual 
state is very like a prolonged dream-life, to which our 
world-sense or earthly condition is just the same as is 
spiritual clairvoyance to an inhabitant of the physical 
body ; that is to say, it is possible for spiritual beings 
to become en rapport with this earthly world, and the 
interests, persons and things thereof; but this is not 
, their normal state or condition, any more than the 
clairvoyance, induced mesmerically, is the normal state 
of the subject possessing the faculty. 

It requires long and persistent effort to induce a con- 
dition in a human being, which will for a time intromit 
him into the greater or lesser Soul-worlds ; and just 
so it is no easy matter for the inhabitants of those higher 
and highest worlds to become en rapport with this. 

These remarks are introductory to what follows. 

After the first great thrill of terror had passed over, 
I became comparatively calm, and soon lost all con- 
sciousness whatever. Not a "sensation ever felt before 
in all my life was experienced now, but a new magazine 
8* 



178 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

of emotions seemed to have suddenly been opened in 
the depths of my being, and began to usurp the places 
of the old ones. 

Some years subsequent to the events now detailed, I 
read the wonderful experiences of several persons, who 
had taken the oriental drug known as hasheesh, and a 
few years thereafter was induced to make an experi- 
ment upon myself with a little of the powerful stimu- 
lant. I became fully conversant with its influence, but 
in no instance was there the least similarity between 
the condition it brought on and the state in which I was 
when reclining beneath the bower in the wood. I have 
known the fullest, deepest, most intense effect of that 
singular drug ;* but nothing I ever experienced from 
it — nothing I ever read of as having been experienced 
by others who iiad foolishly taken it — at all resembled 
the sensations to which I awoke under the trees near 
that eastern city. Gradually the sense of lostness, which 
for a time possessed me, passed away, and was succeeded 
by a consciousness altogether distinct from that of 
either the dream or the ordinary wakeful condition. 
Not a sensation ever previously experienced — not even 
in the very soul-vaults of my being — now swept the 
nerve-harp within, to solace, actuate or annoy ; but, in- 
stead, there came an indefinable pleasure-sense — a 
sort of hyper-sensual ecstasy, by no means organic, but 
diffused over the entire being. I have every reason to 
believe that this feeling is aliuays experienced by the 
newly dead. Persons who have been resuscitated after 
drowning, suspension by the neck, and asphyxia, all 

unite in testifying, that so far as their experience went, 

* ■ 

* Nothing on earth could ever induce me to take a drachm of this 
accursed drug again. 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 179 

death was a pleasant feeling, and its joys supreme, even 
in what to spectators may have seemed the terrible 
passing hour. This sensation, like all others, cannot 
"be verbally described ; it was as if the keenest pleasures 
known to us in the body were infinitely prolonged and 
strung out over the entire nerve-sea, instead of a single 
organ or two. 

I cannot perhaps convey my meaning to some people 
better than by saying that the sensation was akin to 
the feeling of an instantaneous relief from the most ex- 
cruciating pain — the toothache, for instance. I was 
not, at first, conscious of possessing a body ; not even 
the ultra-sublimated material one of which we hear so 
much said in these/ latter days; but a higher, nobler 
consciousness was mine — namely, a supremely radiant 
soul-majesty. 

My ears did not hear ; but Sound — Nature's music — 
the delicious, but still melodies of earth and space, and 
all things else, seemed to pour in upon my ravished 
soul, in rich full streams, through a thousand avenues. 
The eye did not see, but I was all sight. There was no 
organ of locomotion, as on the earth, nor were such 
needed ; but my spirit seemed to be all motion, and it 
knew instinctively, that by the power of the thought- 
wish, it could reach any point within the boundaries of 
earth where it longed and willed to be ; but not a sin- 
gle yard beyond it. Let it be here distinctly under- 
stood, that the condition in which I now found myself, 
was precisely the same as that of the higher class of 
spiritual beings, when they are in the peculiar state 
wherein they can for a limited period, and to a certain 
extent, become connected with this world, wherein they 
have once lived, and from which they have passed over 



180 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

the bridge of Death to the brighter realms beyond ; in 
other words, I was connected with two worlds, and the 
states incident to the residents of both, at one and the 
same time. 

Distinctively and most clearly does memory retain 
all the marvelous changes from the pre-state of that 
auspicious afternoon. 

What is especially remarkable, is t that the condition 
was so peculiar, that the freed soul could, and did, after 
a time, take close notice of material things, even while 
that same soul-gaze penetrated the surface, and beheld 
their essences. The vision was not bounded by the 
obstacles which impede ordinary sight. Every object 
was, more or less, transparent ; and one very singular 
peculiarity of all bodies, of whatever kind, was this : 
the trees, stones, hills, mountains, everything, appeared 
as if composed of absolute fire. A certain object I 
knew, from its shape, to be a large tree, with brown 
bark, white wood, and green leaves ; yet none of these 
colors were there now, but instead, the trunk appeared 
to be a huge cylinder of gray fire, not in one mass, but 
in interwoven streaks, all actively flaring upward, and 
bound together by a circle of brighter fire (the inner 
bark), which in turn was encompassed by a dull brown 
band of faintly flickering flame. Each leaf was also 
nothing but a vari-formed disk of purple and orange 
fire. Thus it was with all that I beheld. 

Fire, in some form, constitutes the life of all beings, 
of whatsoever nature ; of this I am firmly convinced. 
These strange sights caused me to reason in this wise : 
" If dull matter is so filled with the divine luminescence, 
what must be the appearance of a human being ? Surely 
a jnan must present m astonishing sight ! Of a cer- 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 181 

tainty," said I, " this must be Eternity, and I am now a 
free soul ! 0, that I might behold another soul than 
mine, and learn somewhat of its mysteries, and reach 
the understanding of a few of the deeper things of its 
nature." Scarcely had this desire taken form, than a 
sense of involuntary motion took possession, and I felt 
myself slowly and positively rising in space, at an angle 
of eighty degrees with the horizon. Amazement! The 
sensation was not unpleasant ; but as the ground re- 
ceded apparently, the novelty of the situation produced 
emotions that most certainly were. It is impossible to 
describe one's feelings ; nor shall such an attempt be 
here essayed. Suffice it therefore, that I rose to such a 
height, that, judging by the faint gleams of the earth- 
fires in the hills, and the indistinct shimmering of the 
city itself, I conjectured, that when at the highest point, 
not less than five miles, in a straight line, separated me 
from the peak of the tallest mountain within sight. 
Having reached this altitude, I began to descend the 
opposite arm of the triangle, whose base was on the 
earth's surface, and reached the ground in the neigh- 
borhood of a city in central New York, distant from 
my point of departure not less than two hundred miles. 
Of course, it was impossible to even conjecture either 
the means by which this journey was accomplished, or 
the motives prompting the wierd power which effected 
it ; but whatever be the reasons of my coming, one thing 
is certain — here I am, and nothing remains but to abide 
the issue, whatever it may be, thought I. 

Even during the mental perturbation, which was the 
natural result of the extraordinary circumstances in 
which I was placed, the question-asking faculty and pro- 
pensity of my mind — one of its leading traits — found 



182 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

sufficient time for exercise ; and many were the " whys," 
" hows," and " what fors" which causality propounded, 
but to which at first there came no response. It is 
almost impossible to convey an idea of the strange pro- 
cesses by which knowledge lowed in upon my soul. It 
seemed to be absorbed. Knowledge, all knowledge 
may be said to float in the spiritual atmosphere, under- 
lying the coarser air men breathe ; and in certain 
states, reachable by every human being, this knowledge 
is drawn in involuntarily, just as salt absorbs moisture. 

Near the spot over which I hovered, [for the spirit 
cannot touch gross substance directly, but moves along 
on the surface of an aerial stratification near the earth : 
these strata are about sixty feet apart, and there are 
transverse, vertical and other lanes leading in all direc- 
tions through them,] stood a house embowered in trees, 
and in this house was a " study," and in that study I 
saw the object, above all others, which had been the 
theme of my longing, prior to the commencement of my 
aerial journey, namely, a man ; and that man was ap- 
parently educated and refined — for near where he sat 
stood a library of books, one of which he was at that 
moment engaged in reading. The title of the book 
was " Neander's Life of Christ." 

Calmly read the man ; still more calmly I observed 
him and his surroundings ; and the result of these ob- 
servations was a firm conviction that the theories pro- 
pounded by Newton, and generally admitted to be true, 
concerning light, color, and sound, are not correct, or 
even approximately so. 

No amount of disbelief on the part of others ; no 
amount of cavilling, nor reasoning can ever convince me 
that the experience now being recorded is anything less 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 183 

than absolute fact — the direct contact of my inner being 
with the truths here related : hence I hesitate not for 
an instant in challenging the guesses of even a Newton, 
and offsetting against them the results of my own per- 
sonal inspection of the phenomena whereof his Principia 
treats. In the first place, there are many different kinds 
of light : in the present instance; there were two sorts 
in operation ; first, the rays of solar light fell upon the 
printed page, and with it a still finer, and more subtle, 
white and velvet light, from the eyes of the man him- 
self ; which proved to me, that men gain a knowledge 
of external things by means of an absolute and positive 
irradiation from the soul itself, whose seat is in the cen- 
tral brain ; and this, through the medium of the optic 
nerves, retina and other delicate organs. In proportion 
to the central power of the soul, it suffuses and bathes 
everything in, and with, a subtle aura ; and this aura is 
that mysterious telegraphic apparatus, by means of 
which it issues its behests, and receives information. 

While gazing upon this beautiful sight I distinctly 
heard a bell ring ; and yet that bell was not sounded 
within two hundred miles of the spot where at that 
very moment the] body of the writer lay wrapped in a 
death-like pall of insensibility, as was proved by the 
actions of the man within the house, near which I stood, 
investigating the sublimest of all phenomena — namely, 
the Human Soul, its phases, modes and nature. 

The student instantly laid down the book and rose to 
his feet ; not, however, to respond to the ringing, but 
to bid his three or four little mischief-loving prattlers 
be quiet, make less noise, put aside the hand-bell, and 
not disturb him by its tinkling. 
[ All this was deeply interesting ; but what most at- 



184 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. - 

tracted my attention was the discovery of the fact that 
sound was not, as thousands of scientific men have as- 
serted, a mere vibration of aerial particles, but, on the 
contrary, was, and is, a fine, very fine and attenuated 
substance, which leaves any and all objects that are 
jarred or struck — and leaves in greater or less volume, 
in pointed pencil-rays, single rays, broad sheets of 
various shapes, and in undulatory waves, according to 
the nature of the object whence it flows, the force of the 
blow struck, and the character of the object used in 
striking. It would be quite worth the while for our 
savants to make experiments to verify, or, if possible, 
refute these statements. 

The man resumed his seat ; and I saw that from his 
internal brain there proceeded to the outer ears innu- 
merable fibres of pale green light, and that the pencil- 
rays and sheets of sound, which were at that moment 
floating through all contiguous space, came in direct 
contact with the terminals of what, — for want of a better 
name, — I will call fibres, or, more properly, fibrils ; the 
contact took place within the rim of the external ear, 
and the sound was instantaneously transmitted, or tele- 
graphed, along the auditory nerve to the sanctum 
sanctorum of his very soul. 

The question naturally arises in the reader's mind at 
this point : " How was it possible for you to become 
cognizant of sound under the very peculiar circum- 
stances and conditions by which you were surrounded 
for the time being ? You could - not hear by means of 
the outer ear and auditory nerves, for it is plain, if your 
story be indeed a recital of actual events, and not merely 
a splendid philosophical fiction, that your material hear- 
ing apparatus had been left behind you, in the body, 



DEALINGS WirH THE DEAD. 18 5 

' beneath the trees on the outskirts of the New England 
city ?" A very fair question this, and one demanding 
a fair answer. To it I reply thus : The human being, 
externally, is a multiple thing, at the bottom of which 
lies the invisible soul : Soul is the thinking, feeling, 
knowing essence ; spirit is its casket ; the body but its 
nursery-garments, the clothing of its juvenility. By 
means of the body, the soul, in which alone all power 
and faculty inheres, is enabled to come in contact with 
the material world. By means of its inner or spirit- 
body, which is but an out-creation, it holds converse 
with the worlds of Knowledge, Spirit and Principle. 
The fibrils alluded to are not mere emanations from the 
physical brain, or its ganglia, but they are wires, one 
end of which is eternally anchored in the very soul itself, 
which latter is, of course, the man per se. The wires, 
though passing through, are by no means rooted in the 
corporeal structure ; hence, the man or woman, without 
a flesh-and-blood body, experiences but little, if any, 
difficulty in hearing sounds made in this material world. 
As it is with regard to hearing, so also it is, to the 
same degree, with reference to the power of seeing the 
corporeal forms of earthly things. The perfection and 
ease, however, with which this is done, depends upon 
the normal condition of the disembodied man himself. 
If he or she, as the case may be, is sound, sane, clear 
and morally healthy, its powers, as with one yet in the 
flesh, are augmented and positive ; therefore it can, by 
processes already sufficiently explained, see, hear, feel, and 
even read, not only books, but the unexpressed thought 
of a person still embodied with whom he or she may 
for the time being be in sympathetic contact. Very 
seldom, however, can the recently dead do these things 



186 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

with the same ease and facility that others can who 
have been over the river a longer time. This I have 
abundantly proved; and this, too, explains a point 
which, as certain believers in the Spiritology of the day 
inform me, has puzzled thousands of investigators, i. e. : 
why some of the dead people, with whom they claim to 
hold very frequent converse, can only be communicated 
with by means of hard labor on their part, while others 
readily understand and respond. Some can faintly, 
others clearly see and hear ; some can correctly read 
people's thoughts ; others cannot, and must be addressed 
vocally ; others still require all questions to be written, 
in order that they may see and understand. The facul- 
ties and powers of dead people are doubtless as varied, 
dissimilar and unevenly developed as are those of per- 
sons on the hither side of Time. 

The study of the human soul is a great one, and en- 
tirely worthy of a life's devotion. It has been mine to 
seek the solution of many of its mysteries, and in a few 
instances success has crowned the effort and rewarded 
the laborer. The final answer to the question is this : 
the sounds were conveyed to my inner being directly, 
and without the need of any flesh-and-blood organ of 
sense. Let us now turn toward a far more sublime 
mystery, namely : The very Soul itself. 



m* WtoqtH ®Mt-gtml 

With unmingled astonishment I gazed upon the man 
as he sat there in his quiet study. I had often been told 
that man was a microcosm, or a world in miniature ; 
but closer observation proved to me that he was more 
than that — for, instead of a world, he was a universe of 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 187 

worlds and mysteries, a few of the latter of which were 
comprehended by me for the first time. 

Standing thus, I reasoned after this wise : ' Unques- 
tionably all the faculties and qualities pertaining to 
man, as we find him upon the earth, are the results of a 
design on the part of the august Mind which placed him 
here. The purpose and function of these faculties and 
qualities, are to subserve man's best interests, his proper 
unfolding, and the divine purpose — here ; and, doubt- 
less, when by death he shall be transported elsewhere, 
to meet a new destiny and act in a new drama, other 
qualities and faculties, adapted to his changed position, 
will be given him ; or, if already latent, will be duly 
brought into action. Perhaps their seeds are already 
planted in him ; if so, they will assuredly spring up at 
death, blossom in the Soul-world, and bear golden fruit 
in that place, and at that period of the infinite year, 
when God shall so ordain it. We none of us know what 
we fairly are ; and no one, not even the loftiest seraphs, 
can tell positively what we shall be ; yet, that man is 
re-served, and will through all his trials be £>re-served, 
for some great, some yet undreamed-of destiny or end, 
there cannot be the shadow of a doubt. Nor will this 
final end be the mere eternal dwelling in the Valhallas, 
of which we sometimes dream ; nor in the ' spheres/ 
about which * spiritual mediums' so glibly talk, nor in 
the gold-paved cities whereof we so often sing. Our 
final destiny is none of these. Beyond all question, much 
of the knowledge acquired in the earth-life will be 
found at death to have served its purpose here, and 
will never again come into play. 

Not a single one of the grander, more noble longings 
and ambitions of the soul can find their field of action 



188 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

here ; but they are deathless ; and as God has provided 
a supply for every proper demand in all things else, so 
He has in this instance ; and therefore, though the as- 
piring soul may pass away with its strong wings droop- 
ing, and weak for want of exercise, yet, up there — in its 
grand heaven — the air is pure and the field immense, the 
mountains tall, and the oceans wide ; and the eagle soul 
shall essay its loftiest flight, and grow stronger from 
the trial. What a person acquires here is but a pro- 
phecy of harvests to be reaped in the great hereafter. 

Man is really a unitary being, but seemingly is du- 
plex, and even multiple ; but this is seeming only, for 
in fact there is but one real sense in man — which truth 
I learned as I gazed upon the student in the chamber ; 
and that sense is intuition — the human sprout of an in- 
finite and God-like faculty, dormant in most people, yet 
ineontestibly destined to an immense unfolding in all ; 
albeit, it is so deeply buried in some that it can only 
express itself through organs. " And God said, Let 
us make man in our own image f and so He made him ; 
but God is ubiquitous, omnipresent, omniscient — man is ' 
not ; and yet, if Scripture be worthy of our regard, and 
Progress be not a sham and delusive dream, the tre- 
mendous prophecy implied in the line from Genesis just 
quoted is certainly to be realized ; and man is destined 
to move, through thorny fields — and slowly, it may be — 
yet still to move, towards Ubiquity and Omniscience ! 
Intuition is the sprout of which they are the full tree. 
True, man shall never reach absolute godhood, yet 
ever will he move toward it. 

"If this be so," says the caviler, " and God be sta- 
tionary, and not an advancing Being, there must come a 
time — even though when many a yet unborn eternity 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 189 

shall have grown hoary with age — still there must come 
a time when man will overtake Deity ; and then there 
can no longer be a God I" Specious this, very ! Why? 
Because God, though not a progressive Being, as we 
understand it, yet is infinite ; and man must ever be 
finite. God's omniscience is what the word proclaims 
it — all-bnowing ; but man shall be much-knowing. He 
is forced to approach Perfection in straight lines, and 
when he shall have attained immense power in any 
given direction, there will still be forever germinating 
new faculties, before the untold millions of which there 
shall ever be an infinite stretch, a limitless field, an end- 
less road. God also is kaleidescopic ; and, supposing it 
were possible for man to reach the point of greatness at 
which Deity is to-day, yet one exertion of His volition— 
and, lo ! He presents a new aspect to the wondering 
souls of infinitude, more marvelous than before, ai*d 
reveals points which will place a new infinity between 
man and their attainability ; and so on for all the 
epochs yet to be — epochs whereof eternities, as we un- 
derstand them, shall only count as moments in the ever- 
lasting year. Death is but an awakening, and there 
are to be myriads of these. 

All this I knew and felt ; all these mighty foreshad- 
owings flowed into my soul, as, with clarified intellect, 
and spirit bowed down with awe, I stood gazing at the 
man within the chamber. More : Reason, the king- 
faculty given us he^e, was only intended to act as our 
pilot through life, and will have fulfilled its main office 
when we step into the grave ; but very soon after we 
step out of it, on the other side, the union of the 
senses begins to take place, and the Sense — whose ele- 
ments are the senses — comes into play — the all-absorb- 



190 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

ing Intuition. This uni-faculty is not a thing of earthly 
origin, though it here deepens and grows strong ; it was 
an integer of the original being — became a part of the 
soul at the very instant wherein it fell from God ; it is 
a triple faculty, and its role is Prevision, Present-know- 
ing, and Eeminiscence. 

The skin of a man is not himself, although^ whoever 
sees one, recognizes something human. Beneath this 
skin is the muscular system, interlaced with a magnifi- 
cent net-work of nerves, all in the form of, yet by no 
means the man himself. Next we come to the osseous 
system— the skeleton — the God-fashioned framework of 
the house he lives in — and a house only — one, too, that 
is often let to bad tenants, seeing how zealously they 
abuse it and batter down its walls. Now, when we see 
a skeleton, we know it is something that points towards 
the human, yet do not for that reason, even momenta- 
rily, confound the bones with the individual ; for we 
instinctively know that the wonderful occupant of this 
bony edifice is, and to bodily eyes will forever remain 
invisible. Whoever looks for a man, must go below 
and above skin, flesh, muscles, and bones, to find him. 
Well, let the searcher enter the domain of the senses — 
a country that lies a long distance beyond the nervo- 
osseous land. Ah ! here is the man, somewhere in this 
region of sense. Let's see ! one, two, three, five, or a 
dozen— no matter about counting them — yet nowhere in 
all this region have we found or can find the man. We 
are certainly nearer to him than we were awhile ago ; 
yet, not finding him, we conclude to go a little further 
in the search. ' He dwells in the Faculties.' Not so ; 
try again. ' In the passions/ Further still ; not home 
yet. ' In God-like reason, and the quality-parlors of vir- 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 191 

tue, aspiration, expression — each one step nearer the 
goal.' Go a little deeper, and in the centre of the brain 
you will find a winged globe of celestial fire, in 
which dwells the Man ! — his part of God crowded 
into less than three square inches of surface. Here is 
the seat of the soul ; here is the Grand Depot, at which 
all the Nerve, and Thought, and Knowing, Thinking 
and Peeling trains, and telegraphic lines converge and 
meet ! -This Winged Globe is a House of Many Man- 
sions, eternal in itself ; and the principal parlor, in the 
grandest palace of them all, is devoted to the Peerless 
Power — Intuition ! Born in man, it often lies perdu, 
or latent, till the final passage, and never bursts into 
full activity at once, save in very rare instances, as in 
the case of those wonderful genii, Newton, La Place, 
and men of that order ; and even in these, it is only 
partially active. It requires peculiar conditions for its 
expansion, just as the reasoning and other faculties re- 
quire time and exercise. The soul is really a divine 
monad,* a particle, so to speak, of the Divine brain — a 
celestial corruscation from the Eternal heart ; and, for 
that reason, an eternal existence — immortality being its 
very essence, and expansion constituting its majestic na- 
ture ; and the Soul, this monad, was once an integer of 
God himself — was sent forth by His fiat — became in- 
carnated and an individual, separate and distinct from, 
yet having strong affinities for all things material — 
stronger for all things spiritual, and for its brethren — 

* Monad — first definition, an ultimate atom ; a simple substance 
without parts, indivisible, a primary constituent of matter. Second 
, definition — a monad is not a material, but a formal atom, it being im 
possible for a thing to be at once material and possessed of a real uni- 
ty and indivisibility. 



192 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

and an attraction toward its ultimate Source stronger 
than all else beside. Here, then, I lay bare the very 
corner-stone of the splendid Temple of Progress, whose 
foundations are laid in Time, but whose turrets catch 
the gleams from the Eternal Sun of suns, whose warm- 
ing rays diffuse themselves over every starry island in 
the tremendous Ocean of Being I 

Intuition is but an awakening of the inmost soul to 
an active personal consciousness of what it knew by vir- 
tue of its Divine genesis. 

Suffering appears to be one means toward this 
awakening, and the consequent intensification of the 
individuality ; and the passions of man, labor, and evil, 
are also agents to this end. 

Man is beset by evil on all sides, doubtless to 
the end that, in shunning it, and conserving the self- 
hood, he may effect the earliest possible completion and 
rounding out of his entire being, and, consequently, be 
all the better prepared to encounter the immense des- 
tiny that lies before him in the Hereafter. ****** 
And I gazed upon the man within the chamber ; the 
weather to him — but not to me, for I was totally unaf- 
fected — seemed to be oppressively warm ; and it was 
exceedingly difficult for him, after a while, to overcome 
the somnolent or drowsy influence thus induced, and 
prevent himself from falling asleep. However, he 
made strenuous efforts to conquer the tendency, and 
for a time it was mastered ; but, in the struggle be- 
tween himself and the slumber-fay, a secret was disclosed 
to me, and another beautiful arcanum of the human 
economy revealed. 

The student of these pages will remember that ere- 
while I mentioned the astonishing fact — one of great 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 193 

value to all who think — that I was as a perfectly dis- 
embodied soul during the experience now recounted, 
and could and did behold, at one and the same time, 
both the external and the essential part of whatever my 
glance fell upon. The reader will perhaps arrive at a 
clearer understanding of what is here meant to be 
conveyed if this double power be thus illustrated : A 
person may look through one glass vase at several 
others, many colored, within it, the last of which con- 
tains the image of a man, in still finer glass, — his eye 
resting upon the surface of each particular vase, yet at 
the same time penetrating and grasping the whole. 
Thus it was in the present case : I saw, — and what 
obtained of that student in the room obtains of all im- 
mortal beings, — the clothes; beneath the clothing his 
body ; and intertilling that, as w^ter does a sponge, I 
beheld the spiritual man. 

Here let me define a few terms : Body is that which 
is purely material, corporeal, dense, weighable, atomical 
or particled ; spirit is a thing of triplicity : in the most 
external sense, that which interpenetrates, flows 
through, from, and constitutes the life of material exist- 
ences is spirit ; second, the great menstruum in which 
the universe floats and has its being is spirit, but vastly 
different from the foregoing ; and third, the mental 
operations, as well as their results, are spiritual — a 
man's thought, for instance. Great care must be taken 
to distinguish these last two from the first, which is the 
effluvium from, or surrounding aura of all material 
forms and things. Soul is that more stately principle 
and, thing which thinks, feels, tastes, sees, knows, as- 
pires, suffers, hates, loves, fears, calculates and enjoys. 

Hoping that these definitions will be retained, and 
9 



194 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

that my meaning only will be given to the terms used, 
we will now proceed. I became a rapt observer, not of 
the man in the study, as a person, but as a rare mechan- 
ism. The clothes he wore, emitted a dull, faint, leaden- 
hued cloud, perfectly transparent, and extending about 
three inches from their surface in all directions. His 
body was apparently composed of orange-colored flame, 
and its emanations reached to the distance of fifteen 
feet on all sides ; it penetrated the wood-work, walls, 
chairs, tables, — all with which it came in contact ; and 
I noticed two facts : first, that its form was an oblate 
spheroid, and second, that a portion of it adhered to 
whatever he touched. 

Thus it is true that a man leaves a portion of himself 
wherever he may chance to go : this explains why a dog 
is enabled to trace his master through the streets of a 
crowded city. *'•_*** When the man rose to silence 
the noise of his children, I discerned the form of this 
sphere, in the centre of a similar one of which every 
created being stands. Its poles were the head and feet, 
and its equator, whose bulge exceeded the polar dimen- 
sions about one-fortieth, was directly on the plane of the 
abdominal centre. This sphere penetrated that of the 
clothes ; and, although it was so marvelously fine, still 
it, like its exemplar — a large soap-bubble — appeared to 
be par tided, or heterogeneous. Within the physical 
body of the man there was a second, — itself constituting 
another human form, like the vase within a vase. The 
substance of this last was beautiful and pearly ; its mass 
was apparently in perfect coalescence, — indivisible, 
atomless and unparticled. This was the man's true 
shell — his house, his home, — the outbirth of, but not 
the man himself. 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 195 

And now the question is asked me: " What consti- 
tutes the ego : what is the man ?" The answer is : 
Soul is a thing sui generis, and unique. Sight, taste, 
and the senses generally, are some of its properties ; — 
reflection, reason, and fancy are -a few of its qualities ; 
— judgment its prerogative ; — physical scenes its thea- 
tre ; — earthly experience its school ; — and the second 
life its university, whence it will graduate to — what ? 
This shall bye-and-bye be answered. Time is but one 
of a vast multitude of other phases of existence, through 
which it yet must pass. We know something about 
its propensities, powers, methods and qualities; but 
only a very little about the soul itself. We realize 
somewhat of its accidents and incidents, and not much 
else beside. Most assuredly, modern " Spiritualism" 
has not added much to our knowledge ; it may do so 
in the future, but some of us do not like to wait. 

The human being may be likened unto a circular 
avenue, divided by a central wall, which separates the 
known from the unknown. We begin at the centre of 
this wall, our conscious point, and look toward the 
outer edge of the circle ; we see one hemisphere, and 
one only. What pertains to the other hemisphere, — 
the one behind this conscious point ? Make the trial to 
ascertain what lies on the thither side ; seek to fathom 
the soul within you, and what results ? Why the wall 
is reached, nothing more ; you strike it, think it, feel 
of it, but cannot recede from nor look behind yourself. 
But that there is a greater mystery behind than the one 
before you is proved by the fact that your entire being 
is but the result of an infinite, propulsive power, which 
whirled yon into being, but will never hurl you out. 



196 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

There is a point reachable, quite beyond that of outer 
consciousness. 

Well, the man strove to baffle the tendency to som- 
nolence. His brain was one living mass of phosphor- 
like luminescence ; there was a large and brilliant 
globe, apparently of white fire-mist, encompassing the 
head. Its center rested exactly on what anatomists 
call the corpus callosum : and this body — this central 
cerebral viscus — I affirm to be the seat of conscious- 
ness,— the blazing throne of the Immortal Soul ! 

On other occasions I have beheld similar bright 
globes of what can only be compared to pure fire. 
Others claim to have witnessed the same ; they have 
described it, and uniformly, nay, invariably locate this 
ball on the precise spot indicated. The volume of this 
singular something, varies in different people, from the 
bulk of a large pea to some three or four inches in mean 
diameter, in which latter case it, of course, has only its 
axis in the place indicated, while its body penetrates 
the circumjacent brain. The effulgence, as the volume, 
also varies in different persons. In some it is, compar- 
atively speaking, no brighter than the flame of a good 
candle, ^hile in others it is an infinite intensification of 
the dazzling radiance of the Drummond or the calcium 
light. In the man before me this globe was nearly a 
perfect sphere ; in othep instances I have observed its 
shape to be somewhat angular. The better the per- 
son, the greater the intelligence (intuitive, not mere 
memory-learning), the larger, smoother, and rounder is 
this wondrous Soul-Sun.* 



* This central globe is the sun of the microcosm ; a duller globe of 
fire, situated behind the stomach, in the Solar Plexus, is its moon, and 
the phreno-organs are the stars ; the Passional organs are the planets ; 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 197 

In the student I beheld the operations of this great 
mystery ; whenever the drowsiness came over him — 
and he exerted his will to keep it off — I noticed that 
one side of this winged globe (for there were two 
wing-like appendages attached thereto, something like 
the connections of the uterus) would collapse, and 
straightway a perfect stream of radiant fire-flecks went 
forth in the opposite direction, like spark-rays from the 
sun. These confiscations sped through all parts of the 
brain, -causing it to sparkle more brightly; they ran 
along the nerves, leaped to the muscles, and diffused new 
life and animation throughout the body, — which being 
accomplished, the globe resumed its former shape again. 
This struck me as being at once both sublime and 
curious ; but something still more so now took place. 

As I observed above, when he strove to keep awake, 
the globe became indented, from the outside, which was 
generally smooth, — albeit a countless multitude of filmy 
rays of light streamed forth in all directions — the sur- 
face meanwhile retaining its polished, burnished, and 
ineffably dazzling general appearance. 

The man laid down his book, lifted a pen, dipped it 
in the inkstand, held it over the table for a while, and 
appeared to be concentrating his thoughts ; and while 
he did so the winged globe within his head began to 
enlarge until it occupied not less than four times its 
original space within the brain, This it did gradually, 
and as gradually resumed its former bulk ; but, in the 
mean time, his hand had flown over the paper, and the 
man had indited a Thought ! Anxious to know what 



the Sensations are the meteors, &c., &c., there being not merely a 
perfect correspondence, but a wonderful similarity, complete and 
full, between the universe without and the universe within. 



198 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

this thought was, I looked upon the paper, and was 
surprised by observing a very curious phenomenon. 
The words written upon the paper were : " The an- 
cients were far behind the moderns in general intelli- 
gence, but far, very far beyond them in isolated instances 
of mental power. Probably the simplicity of the lives 
of devout men of yore had a powerful influence in 
bringing out the concealed treasures, and in developing 
the extraordinary conceptive power which not a few of 
them undoubtedly possessed. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Job and 
the great Cathay an have never been equaled, in their 
several specialties, by men of later times ; it is ex- 
tremely doubtful if they ever will be. Really great 
men are few and scarce in any age, but popular men 
are plentiful in all eras. It is only the sad-hearted 
man, — he who stands and walks alone in the crowded 
cities of the world, shunned, laughed at, derided, 
scorned and unsupported, — who succeeds in engraving 
a name upon the walls of Time ; and of all that ever 
lived, Jesus, the Nazarene, looms up in such magnificent 
proportions, over the edges of the dead years, that we 
instinctively know that he was a real personage, — one 
who lived and loved, suffered and died with, for, and 
among men ; and we reject the absurdities of Strauss 
and the Cavilers, and triumphantly proclaim that Jesus 
was not a myth. He sought to do good, and not to merit 
the plaudits of the mob, or of those who rule. A popu- 
lar man is one who keeps just within the front ranks of 
the human army, leading it whither its fancy and whim 
may at the moment prompt ; but a great man is one 
who volunteers to become the pioneer of the race, and 
is, at the same time, the Herald of the coming age of 
Goodness. He feels the pulse of God in his heart,— 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 199 

and he knows to live and lives to know. We are ap- 
proaching an era when human genius shall be the rule, 
and not the exception, as now. When that day shall 
dawn, the earth will fully blossom. It has painfully 
labored heretofore, and brought forth abortions — per- 
fect, seemingly, to their contemporaries, but, in view of 
her yet untested energies, abortions still. 77 

Now, the ink had scarcely dried upon the paper, and 
yet the dark violet of the aura, emitted by it when in 
the inkstand, and which rose from the paper wherever 
the pen touched it, was almost immediately obscured 
by a far brighter one, which proceeded from the gene- 
ral writing ; by which I discovered that thoughts 

WERE LIVING THINGS, ENDOWED WITH A BEING IN THEM- 
SELVES ! This thought was really a part of the man 
himself. I beheld a small cell within the winged globe 
open and emit a line of fire, which leaped to one of the 
cerebral organs, passing up one of the fibrils and down 
the other — thence to a nerve aloug it to the arm, the 
pen, and to the paper, where it became diffused and 
sealed in the inky letters. And at that moment it came 
to me, from the far-off regions of positive Knowledge, 
that, should the paper containing the ideas be burnt, yet 
the thought itself could never perish, because it was 
part and parcel of a Soul ; but it would float about 
in the human world — at some time be absorbed into a 
human soul, undergo a new gestation, and in due time 
be born again into the conscious realm around us. 

Much more the man wrote ; but at length his weary 
task and the sultry weather overpowered him, and, 
rising fronr his seat, he closed the blinds, threw himself 
upon the lounge, and in a few minutes was fast asleep. 
While watching the process, I became aware, for the 



200 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

first time, that I was being practically educated by a 
glorious being — an inhabitant of the Soul- world — whose 
presence was now made clear, direct and palpable. 
This bright one conversed with me by a process not 
easily explained, but an idea of "frhicli may be gained if 
we call it infusion of thought. His lips moved not, and 
yet the full meaning he intended, was transmitted, even 
more perfectly than if by the use of words. Such be- 
ings can speak, but not so effectively as by the silent 
language. 

The object of his visit, he said, was to instruct me in 
certain essentials with reference to future usefulness on 
my part, but principally that the world might gain cer- 
tain needed light upon the soul, and its career, through 
a book or books thereafter to.be written. His name, 
he said, was Kamus — that, in history, he was best 
known as Thothmes, or Thotmor, and that he was an 
Egyptian, of the second dynasty — a king, and the elev- 
enth of the line. 

This was all I learned of him at that time ; for after 
the brief introduction, he pointed toward the man upon 
the sofa, and bade me " Look !" The man was wrapt 
in deep sleep, and the winged globe within his head 
was rapidly altering its shape. First, it flattened out to 
a disk ; this disQ concaved toward the skull ; then it 
put forth a point in the direction of the medulla oblon- 
gata, into whiclr it rapidly passed, entered the spinal- 
marrow, and ran along the vertebras until it reached 
the vicinity of the stomach. Here it left, and instantly 
immerged itself within the solar plexus. The man was in 
a death-like, dreamless slumber. " The soul," said Thot- 
mor, " has gone to infuse new life throughout the physi- 
cal body, in doing which it also recuperates its own en- 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 201 

ergies. Souls can grow tired, but they find rest — not in 
inactivity, as doth the body, but by a change of action. 
The mathematician, weary of figures, finds repose by 
performing chemical experiments or in studying music. 
That man's soul is now supplying fuel to the body, by 
converting the essences of his system into the pabulifm 
of life. Presently its task will be finished, whereupon it 
will again resume its seat upon the regal throne of its 
own mighty world. " * * * * * * 

Thotmor ceased to speak. I turned from the sleeper 
in wondering awe, and, guided by the rare being at my 
side, felt that I was once more rising through the air. 



Turn where we will, ask whom we may, for informa- 
tion, we are sure to be met with the stereotyped " Know 
thyself." As well tell me to leap over the salt sea ! I 
ask all mankind, the ocean, land, air, sun, moon, stars, 
history — everything else, both material and mental, 
sacred and profane — to point me out a single human 
being who really knows himself, or even approximately 
so. Where, I ask, is the wonderful mortal — tell, tell 
me where ? — and from hollow space the echoes^ mock 
me — where ? 

To know oneself ! The words are easily spoken or 
penned ; but to do it, is, of all things, the* hardest and 
most difficult ; for this very selfhood's personality is, 
beyond all others, the special acquaintance of whom we 
]piow the least. 

The sentence " Know thyself n was written over the 
porch of an ancient temple. The man who placed it 
there must have been deeply spiced with satire and cyni- 



Q* 



202 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

cism, else lie certainly would have assigned mankind a 
task less arduous — a task compared to which the twelve 
labors of Hercules were mere child's play. Now, al- 
though this feat may never have been accomplished, still 
it lies within the range of the possibilities ; and in de- 
claring that a man may, by study, find out both himself 
and God, I fly in the face of current philosophy, and 
deny the truth of the noted dogma of modern sophists, 
that- "It is impossible for a man to explore the laby- 
rinths of his own nature : — a principle cannot compre- 
hend itself. 77 Why is the logic of this doctrine faulty ? 
Because, first, God can certainly comprehend man. All 
there is of man is mind ; all there is of Deity is the 
same. A principle thus comprehends itself. 

Man is God 7 s image, and can do on a small what He 
does on an infinite scale ; and the only difference be- 
tween Deity and a full man simply is, that the former 
can comprehend the parts of the Realm separately and 
together, while the latter can only grasp each truth as 
- it swims to him on the rolling waves of Time's great 
sea ; yet, so far as he goes, he comprehends himself. 
The day will dawn when, looking back at what he was, 
he shall fully understand the mystery ; and as he ad- 
vances, he will continually read the foregone scrolls, 
while new accrements of being will ever be his — each 
one in turn to undergo the scrutiny, each one to be fully 
understood, and so on forever and for aye. Were it 
not so, Being Trould be worthless and our existence a 
dreadful farce. Secondly : Intuition has already been 
proved to be the shoot, of which Omniscience is the 
tree — which fact disposes of the absurd dogma just 
quoted, and forever. 

There are two mighty problems up for solution. 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 20 

These are : "What and where is God ?" on which I 
intend to write some day ; and the other is, " What is 
the Soul ?" which I am now partially solving. This 
last has proved itself to be the profound est of all ques- 
tions, and very difficult of solution ; but only so because 
investigators have mistaken their vocation, and an- 
alyzed a few of the faculties, qualities, and affections of 
the mind— all the while imagining the soul itself to be 
under their microscopes — whereas the soul was calmly, 
placidly looking on, and wondering why they were so 
busily intent upon examining the furze and bushes, in- 
stead of the deep, rich soil whence they sprung. 

Faculty, Fancy and Dream-life are but three of the 
Soul's most common moods ; and yet metaphysicians 
have confined themselves to but little else than their 
analysis. These are but three little rays from amidst 
a multitude of others, proceeding from one common 
source ; yet, if even these were all analyzed, understood, 
and known, the great center whence they emanate 
would still remain as great a mystery as ever. Nearly 
all that we know of soul is really not of it, but of its 
methods of display. 

There is something more of man than life, limb, sense- 
faculty, affections, feeling and sex. There's a depth 
beneath them all, and into these deeps I believe it pos- 
sible to dive, and to bring up many a pearl, and crys- 
tal, and grains of golden sand from the floor of his 
being— from out the silver sea of life, whose waters 
flow soul-ward, and have their rise beneath the throne, 
whereon sitteth for evermore the Infinite Eternal — the 
great I am : Aye, it is possible to know oneself, not- 
withstanding that, to ninety-nine persons in a hundred, 
there seems to be an impenetrable cloud, circumvolving 



204 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

them — an obscurity, thick as darkest night, hemming 
them in on all sides. Yes, thank Heaven! man can 
untie the gordian knot, and triumphantly pass the Ru- 
bicon, but not over the bridge of Mesmerism, obsession, 
drugs, or any of the ordinary means usually resorted 
to ; but through the continued exertion of steadfast- 
ness, attention, purpose, and will — the four golden 
posts to -which are hung the double gates, which open 
in both worlds. 

Souls are, of course, the subjects of number, and in 
this sense are "particles/ 7 — souls of course being plural; 
yet soul is not, for although you -may subtract forty- 
eight from forty-nine, and leave a remaining unit, yet 
that unit is absolutely one; and you could no more dis- 
member it, than you could find the lost particles of dust 
upon a midge's wing. Spirit is substance in absolute 
coalescence ; matter is substance, whose particles never 
touch each other ; and soul is a developed monad. A 
thought of a house is, until that thought be actualized — 
surrounded with matter conforming to its shape — a 
monad. There was a period when God was alone ; he 
thought, and the product of that thought is the material 
universe, as we see it ; he thought again — and lo ! those 
thoughts, each one complete in itself, took outer gar- 
ments, and became human beings. Far off, in the past 
eternities, G-od's thoughts went forth ; these were the 
monads. First, they entered into lower forms, then 
higher and higher, till at last they reached organiza- 
tions adapted to the perfect ripening of that which had 
all along been growing. The ripening produced In- 
telligence : that intelligence is the soil, out of which 
Intuition grows ; and what this last advances to, we 
already know, How long, and through what countless 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 205 

numbers of diverse forms, these transmigrations lasted, 
and passed, it were impossible to tell. We all have 
indistinct retrovisions, flashes of back-thought, dim and 
vague reminiscences of a pre-state of existence ; and 
we also know, that there are marvelous resemblances 
between men and the animal creation, just as if the 
soul, on quitting an inferior for a superior form, re- 
tained something of its former surroundings and char- 
acteristics. Some men physically resemble the ox, lion, 
tiger, dog, owl, bat, deer ; and we know that myriads 
resemble in their mentality the traits of character, hab- 
its and dispositions pertaining to all these animals, and 
others, as the fox, snake, eagle, peacock, swine, and so 
on to the end of a long chaptfer. " When I was a flow- 
er," said a little child. That child had an intuition of 
a mighty fact ! 

Now all jthese astonishing likenesses are not acci- 
dental, but exist in accordance with the great law of 
Transmigration. Mind me : I do not say, or believe, 
that any man or woman was ever a dog, viper, vampire- 
bat or tiger ; but I do affirm that the monads, which now 
constitute their souls, once sustained a very close rela- 
tionship to the beasts of the field, and have not yet got 
rid of the effects of the alliance. This is a matter too 
clear to be disputed : else, why these very remarkable 
resemblances ? I know, that some people will " pooh ! 
pooh I" at this idea ; but that wont account for the 
likeness ! A man never was a dog, or an owl ; yet, that 
both dogs and owls were originally made, in order that 
the human monad, in passing a sort of gestation period 
in them, might be ripened slowly, and prepared for what 
he is now,. I have at present no manner of doubt. In- 
deed, human bodies, both physical and spiritual, are but 



206 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

other and higher forms, to which the Winged Globe, 
Man, has transmigrated in its passage from minus to 
plus — from bad to better, and from better to best. A 
dog, owl, bat or human body is only so muclrniatter ; 
and the sole business of 'matter ' is to furnish so many 
different sorts of huts, houses, and palaces for spirit- 
ual tenants, wherein the primary schools maybe attended 
by the regal student-soul. I know that even the disen- 
thralled spiritual body is itself but a mere vehicle of 
Soul, on its next upward transmigration — is still but 
an adjunct, an out-projection of, and scarcely second 
cousin to, the tremendous mystery — Soul — the Winged 
Globe within it. We know that man can live without his 
carbonaceous body, which is but an incidental assump- 
tion in his career, a sort of garb, worn at the longest 
less than a century ; that this period is scarce one sec- 
ond in its immense year ; and that he can see without 
eyes, and know without cerebral organs.* 

It is an axiom that whatever has one end, must also 

* Many persons desire to know how to produce and cultivate clair- 
voyance. To such I present the following rules, knowing them to be 
efficient, and only requiring patience for success. 1st, Set apart the 
first hour after retiring to bed nightly. Eat a light supper ; bind a 
light silk bandage over the entire forehead and eyes, turn the face to- 
ward the darkest corner of the room, and endeavor to see. 2d, Never 
call on a spirit to assist you. 3d, Keep the skin pure by daily ablu- 
tions. 4th, Learn to concentrate the mind on a single object, and 
keep it there. 5th, Fix it on something good, useful and true. 6th, 
Pray fervently to God. 7th, Ask a mental question, and desire that 
the symbolic answer may be given. 8th, Wish well to everything and 
everybody. 

The results will be — 1st, You will see a dim haze. 2d, A spark of 
light. 3d, A greater light. 4th, Misty forms will float before you. 
5th, They will grow distinct. 6th, Answers will flow into your mind. 
7th, You will gradually merge into a radiant light ; behold the actual 
dead, converse with them, and realize your soul's desire. 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 207 

have another : now, if a human soul has its first begin- 
ning here, nothing is more certain than that it will have 
an end somewhere. But the soul is mind — mind is God : 
and God is eternal. He ever existed, and ever will ; 
and the monads, the germ-souls here developed, and 
hereafter perfected, are also eternal ; they existed in all 
times past, and can never cease to be, for their very 
nature is Permanency. All bodies here, or elsewhere, 
are but accompaniments — instruments, tools of the royal 
spirit in one or more of its multitudinous phases of ex- 
istence — that is to say, it creates, uses, and puts them 
on to serve its purposes, till it can afford to dispense 
with them : for human existence is a synonym of Eter- 
nal Duration — is an immense circle : a circle is but an 
infinite polygon : and bodily vehicles serve the soul's 
purposes during its passage over a very few of the 
straight lines whereof this polygon is composed. And, 
beyond all doubt, the period will arrive— it may be 
away in the far-off eternities — bu£ nevertheless loill 
arrive, wherein the soul will dispense with all these 
characteristics of its juvenility. No one associates legs, 
arms, eyes, stomach, or sexual organs, with the idea of 
God : why then should such things be eternally predi- 
cated of man, who is fashioned after the model of the 
Infinite God Himself? 

The body of a man is a greater thing than any object 
on earth beside ; is far greater than even the physical 
world in which he lives, because it is the master pro- 
duction of all the elements and forces in that world. 
The spiritual form that man assumes, and to which he 
may be- said to transmigrate after the physical decease, 
is of far more importance, and altogether greater than 
is his previous physical and material structure. A 



208 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

single faculty of his measureless soul is infinitely greater 
than the spirit, nor may even an archangel comprehend 
fully one of these faculties, at a glance, in view of its 
limitless and expansive power. From one point he may 
comprehend what the faculty was and is, but not what 
it can be : yet the soul itself has untold myriads of 
these ; and only God himself can embrace all at one 
mental grasp — He alone can fully and perfectly know 
a soul as it was, is, and is to be. This does not con- 
flict with previous assertions that a soul can compre- 
hend itself ; for God's omniscience embraces the past, 
the present, and the future : manonly seizes upon the 
first two. Virtue and Vice, and the organs it now 
uses, are but incidents in the career orthisuNDER-GoD. 
These things are of time — are transitory and fleeting ; 
but the man is forever ! In view of this, what is a vice, 
what is accident to this majestic being — the perfected 
work of the viewless Lord of Infinite Glory? 

They are but flecks upon the rose-leaf — atoms on a 
moon-beam ! The immortal man is not fashioned of 
such material as can be forever marred by vice, forever 
happy in what now constitutes the virtues. Its destiny 
is Action, and in the perpetual transmigrations, con- 
trasts and changes of the hereafter, it will find its truest 
account, and the proper subservence of the purposes of 
the awful Will which spake it into being. " Eest for 
the weary," is there ? There is no rest ! Man can 
never rest ! God does not ; why then should he ? 

The immortal spark within is a thing of ceaseless 
activities ; not in sins and repentances, but in noble 
aspirations and high and lofty doing. Great God ! I 
cower in the presence of the tiniest soul ever spoken 
into being ; for I feel, by reason of the great unyeiling- 



I 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 209 

that occurred upon that wonder filled afternoon, that, 
insignificant as it may seem, yet within it there are 
energies that now lie sleeping which shall one day 
awaken into Power, Beauty and most surpassing Glory. 
Hell is its experience of the unfit, improper and untrue ; 
but its wings* are too powerful not to lift it, in triumph, 
above the flames and the deepest pit of all. Earthly 
virtues are the offspring of contrast ; vice consists in 
bad calculation, and both will prove in the great Far- 
off to have Ifeen but the disciplines ordained to fit it 
for the business of Good and Use on the other side 
the curtain ; — and I clap my poor weak hands in glad- 
ness ! Who with true heart can help it ? 

Man is supremely greater than, not only law, that he 
has found it convenient to violate or conform to, but to 
any and all that it is possible for him now to con- 
ceive of oi\ imagine ; because, in the order of the great 
Unveiling, he will discover and come under the action 
of new ones, as the Night of Time moves toward the 
Dawn. 

Those who go about in the exercise of benevolent 
offices are not always the most virtuous ; nor are they 
who heal the sick and give of their abundance to the 
needy ; for all these things are often done for fashion's 
sake. But the man or woman who ever acts up to the 
highest conviction of Right and Duty, even though 
rack-threatened, is the most virtuous ; because in so 
doing the great design of God, which is individualiza- 
tion, and of intensification of character, is all the 
sooner carried out. 

Human beings, male and female, talk much of virtue, 
which means strength, and loudly boast its possession ; 
yet how very few there are who will stand up and face 



210 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

the music which their very talk may have evoked? 
How they shrink when the storm comes down ; how 
they cower when bitter denunciation and abuse pours 
in upon them from the ramparts of the world ! All 
hail the glad and coming day, when we shall be what 
we ought ! When he who wears the garb shall in very 
deed prove himself a man, the most glorious title on 
earth save one, and that one is — woman ! 

Once in a while we are greeted by the magnificent 
spectacle of a female who dares to stand ftp and prac- 
tically vindicate her escutcheon, not in loud talk and 
" strong-minded" diatribes against what exists, but in 
her daily-lived truth, and the practical knowledge of x 
those tender virtues which so endear all true women to 
all true men. And whenever such a woman crosses my 
path, I rejoice ; I rejoice in the presence of such a fact, 
and fold her as a sister folds another to her soul. 
People are false to the light within them. It is a 
great thing to be true to self — to stand forth the cham- 
pion of your noblest thought, when all fingers point at 
3^ou with scorn, all heels are upraised to crush the sweet 
life out of you, and when only God and your own stout 
heart are on your side. To do this, — and, thank 
Heaven ! some there be who dare it, — is to be more 
than human : is to be divine ; and this heart- wrought 
divinity allies us to the immortal gods. This it is that 
I call virtue. 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 211 



As previously stated, it was not possible for me to 
understand the nature of the mysterious power by 
which, ip. company of the peerless being, Thotmor, I 
volitionless clove the ambient air. "0, it was a pro- 
jection of your soul," says the modern novitiate of the 
mystic school. Not so, friend ; for the Ego then and 
there ascending, under the influence of a power similar 
in kind, but immensely superior in volume and display 
to itself, was not a mere psychical phasma — a thing of 
appearance only, and possessing no substantiality of its 
own ; it was no flimsy projection from the fancy-fa- 
culty ; was not a meaningless substance-void image of 
myself. It was no mere subjective state objectified, 
but was indeed my very self, wearing the body of im- 
mortality for a time, during which certain lessons must 
be and were learned, fully and practically, demon- 
stratively and perfectly, so far as the lessons went. 
The man himself, and not his mere shadow or ghost was 
there, in proper form and essence, to the end, no doubt, 
that the mysteries there learned might be given, as 
they now practically are, to the world of thinkers. 

As I, or rather we, ascended toward the zenith, it be- 
gan to rain ; but this did not incommode us, nor in any 
way hinder the ascent, which was continued until it be- 
came necessary to penetrate a dense region of thick, 
black convolving cloud that was now rolling up in vast 
and heavy masses from the northern verge of the im- 
mense horizon, driven by the fierce breath of a mighty 
blast. Looking earthward, it seemed as if the deep 
black night was suddenly going down ; the wind howled 



212 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

through the buildings, and the trees shook, as if with 
mortal fright and terror ; the sorrowing clouds shed 
great drops of tears, as jf mourning in comfortless grief 
over poor human frailty, while the soughing and the 
sighing of the sea was a fitting sympathiurn to their for- 
lornness and despair. 

Thicker rolled the dense black pall over the face of 
the vaulted heaven, hiding all its glories, and shrouding 
it in the very folds of gloom, whose density was only 
relieved when the broad glare of the lightnings rushed 
out upon the sky. The sheets of flame were of various 
colors — violet, green, white, red and purple. The three 
former appeared to issue from the earth's surface ; the 
others, from the space above and immediately around 
us. There were occasionally lines of purely white fire, 
and these took the form of chains, every link of which 
carried ten thousand deaths along with it. These came 
singly • and sometimes two separate lines of fire would 
leap out from the bosom of the clouds simultaneously, 
but from opposite quarters of the gloom — in which case 
they appeared to meet in anger, like as if two angry 
gods were warring with each other, and their junction 
was instantaneously followed by the most terrific bursts 
of thunder that ever fell on human hearing since the 
mighty worlds were made. 

I shook with mortal terror ; and this terror increased 
and intensified into positive, almost unendurable agony, 
as crash after crash of horrible roaring, rolling, burst- 
ing god-cannonry swept down the vast concave, drown- 
ing the clangor of the mad winds, which were rushing 
and rumbling through the spaces, striving desperately 
to rival and surpass the awful voice of the electric god 
himself. I felt that I was lost ; and in that moment of 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 213 

anguish, from the deeps of my soul there went forth a 
prayer to Him whose presence and majesty was then 
recognized, with heart bowed down, and with a fervency 
never realized before. I feared to be swept into no- 
thingness by the tempestuous breath of heaven ; I feared 
to be hurled into destruction by the driving blast ! But 
no ; for seemingly the wind passed through me, just as 
the electric current passes through human or any other 
material bodies, and touched me not destroyingly. The 
fiercest wind that ever raged can never blow a shadow 
from its place, neither can it in any way blow away a 
spirit! for the reason, amongst others, that spirit is not 
matter, any more than is a shadow or a sound substan- 
tial, as this last word is generally defined ; hence wind, 
which is a material substance, can in no wise touch it. 
And so I was not blown away before the driving gale. 
" But suppose a column of wind, just three yards 
square, and moving at the rate of two hundred miles an 
hour, sweeps toward the very spot on which a human 
spirit stands, or is ; it cannot turn this wind aside : 
How, then, could anything remain unmoved ?" This is 
the question ; now the answer comes. A bar or column 
of sunshine streams through the air, and its volume is 
just three yards square, It will require something far 
different, and much more powerful than a column of air, 
moving at the rate of two hundred miles an hour, to 
blow away that sunshine, or to drive a hole through it ; 
yet the sunshine would still be there, and so would the 
wind ! This is my answer to that objection. I lifted 
up my soul in unspeakable thankfulness and adoration, 
as I realized that spirit was superior to matter, even in 
its most subtle and rarified forms — superior even to the 
glaring, seethjng, melting, white fire of the clouds, when 



214 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

the lightning furnaces overflow with fervent heat ! 

Safely, slowly, majestically and holily we passed 
through this terrible battle-ground of the elements ; and 
to a question internally framed and put, this answer 
was given by the illustrious being at my side : 

That you might practically realize the indestructi- 
ble nature of the human being ; that something of hu- 
man majesty might appear to your understanding ; that 
j ou might be shown somewhat of the dignity of being, 
and the royalty of things, Elements, laws and principles, 
hast thou been by me brought hither. This is merely 
a first lesson — the mere Alpha of knowledge ; but others 
far more important are yet to follow. Fear not !" 

But this last injunction it was utterly impossible for 
me — and would have been for any human being under 
similar or analogous circumstances — to obey or do ; 
for what with the dizzy sense of height, the sensations 
attendant upon the movement through space, the glare 
of the lightning, the elemental strife, the perfect ob- 
scuration of my dwelling place (the earth), together 
with an indefinable dread of a something impending, 
and which I might never be able to comprehend ; this, 
all this, had the effect of almost palsying every faculty 
of being, and blanched my very soul with fear ; for the 
rush and crush, the horrible din of the tempest, and the 
thunder, made terror my constant associate. It was as 
if the trial hour had come ; it was like the breaking up 
of mighty mountains ; it was as if a hungry earthquake 
were feeding on a worM ! Instinctively I looked to 
Thotmor for protection. He smiled at my weakness, 
and bade me remember that a greater than himself was 
present. Yes, I realized then that God was there, and 
I was safe ; for He smiled between His frowns, and 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. " 215 

whispered "I am here!" * * * * In other 
days, when I gave my soul and body up to the guidance 
and control of invisible beings, whom I did not know, 
whom I did not stop to prove and identify — apocryphal 
persons, at the best — persons disembodied, if indeed 
they ever wore clay upon this footstool — beings who 
seek their own amusement at the expense of human 
dupes — beings who take supreme pleasure and delight 
in the exhibition of human weakness — beings who 
silently, but surely, infuse the most deadly and destruc- 
tive venom, in the shape of philosophic assurances — 
beings who mock at our calamity and laugh when our 
troubles come, both of which they themselves bring to 
pass — beings who persuade people to believe in all sorts 
of inanities, dictate senseless platitudes, and encourage 
persons to believe themselves philosophers when they 
are only — fools ! I repeat, when in other days I yielded 
to this evil influence — in other days, when both God 
and Thotmor were practically ignored and forgotten — 
in other days, when the pride and power of Eloquence 
turned me from the Useful — an eloquence weird and 
almost magic, that welled up through my soul and went 
forth from eye, and tongue, and pen, and drew my soul 
from God, — there came occasional twinges of regret, 
and an assurance that, in forgetting to profit by the 
teachings of that afternoon, I had bartered off priceless 
joys for the empty bauble ' worldly fame and ephemeral 
glory J — that for the hollow music of man's praises and a 
few claps of the hand, I had given up the Key to the 
magnificent Temple, one of whose apartments I that 
afternoon entered for the first time. Great God ! how 
I have suffered for that foolish estrayal — that fearful 
lege mqjeste — that silly vanity and supreme folly ! 



216 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

We rose above the fierce turmoil, and for the first 
time a fair opportunity was presented for a closer scru- 
tiny of my guide. As I drew nearer to him, he said — 
not in. words, but in the silent language used by the 
higher citizens of the Republic of Souls — " All" thoughts 
have shape : some are sharp, acute and angular, many- 
pointed, and exceedingly rough. These cut and bore 
their way through the worlds ; others are flat and disk- 
like : these are thoughts that must be incarnated in 
matter ere they become useful ; their mission is to be 
seen ; others to he felt. Some thoughts are light and 
fantastic, like bubbles on the sea ; they are beautiful 
while the sun shines, but the very ray that reveals their 
beauty also seals their doom — for the heat kills them ; 
they burst, and forever disappear, being hollow and of 
but little substance : other thoughts are round, heavy, 
and solid as a cannon-ball, and like them, too, their 
mission is to batter down the mounds erected by un- 
wise men. Words are but the garments of thought. 
Geometry is the Soul of all Sciences— order, symmetry, 
and form ! Everything, line, point, shape, ai^gle and 
figure, corresponds to something in both the Spirit and 
the Soul-world (the outward and inward Soul-life), and ■ 
are, independent of magnitude, absolute and arbitrary 
symbols, embodying an absolute and fixed principle : 
and every line, dot, point, shape or angle has a fixed 
definition in the lexicon of the Starry Heavens.* All 
pure and good thoughts, being themselves full of sym- 



* What a stupendous revelation is here ! What an astounding idea ! 
For, if this statement be founded in truth, of which there can be but 
little if any doubt, what ages must elapse ere we be fully able to read 
the myriad volumes of God's great library — the*boun,dless Universe of 
form, color, and sound. — Pub. 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 217 

metry and beauty, can only be outwardly conveyed or 
expressed ; if by the voice, by harmony, music and ryth- 
mical speech and sound ; if by the pen or type, only in 
characters themselves geometrically perfect, and harmo- 
niously so. 

" Now/ 7 said Thotmor, " you have seen much — heard 
much. I have just given you a key, and to prove your 
proficiency in learning, I propound a question. It is 
this : What thinkest thou of Nature ? 77 

Now I, to whom this was addressed, could not pre- 
cisely comprehend what he meant by ' Nature ; 7 but 
naturally supposed that reference was had to the ele- 
mental disturbances and the fearful exhibition of mate- 
rial energy we were witnessing, and which was at that 
moment unabated in the least ; for the storm still raged 
with as much fury as ever — not over the same portion 
of the earth, it is true, but in its own track, as it moved 
on its southward march. I, therefore, answered in the 
same silent language, " that, in view of all that had just 
been witnessed, it was evident that an overruling power 
existed, sver wakeful, ever on the watch ; that His 
power was exercised for the greatest good of all the 
creatures of his love ; and that God worked mysteri- 
ously through nature, expressly to effect the good of 
human kind. 77 To this general answer he responded : 
1 Right : but what think you of Nature ? 77 

Here was a repetition of the identical question al- 
ready propounded. It caused me to ponder a little 
more deeply, and after a while, thinking that this time 
he was perfectly understood, I replied : " It seems to 
me that what we call ' Nature 7 is simply God in action ; 
and that God in the sublimer sense fs Deity in repose. 7 ' 

" Apt learner, 77 said he, " right again. But what 
10 



218 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

thinkest thou of Nature ?" Now here was the same 
interrogation a third time repeated. I now determined 
to study well ere venturing to reply. This I did, all 
the while upborne on the air by a force whose nature 
was not easily understood, but which I inwardly resolved 
to investigate and explore. The resolution was, as will 
be hereafter seen, most faithfully kept, with results 
highly gratifying and satisfactory, which will be pre- 
sented in the sequel to this volume. 

While delving in the mines of my soul for a proper 
answer, I took notice that we gently floated off and 
upward, at an angle of fifty-one degrees with the hor- 
izon. The storm was going in one direction, and we 
in the other ; so that in a little time we were entirely 
beyond its influence, as was also that portion of the 
earth over which it first began to rage. There was no 
standard by which the rate of our velocity could be 
measured ; but it must have been prodigious, judging 
by the rapidity with which the mountains, rivers and 
cities of the earth seemingly swept by us — for indeed 
there was at this point of the experience but v^y little, 
if any, sense of motion, — no cutting of the air, — no 
hissing as we passed through it ; but it seemed as if we' 
were in the center of a large transparent globe or 
sphere, which itself moved on as if impelled by a force 
entirely superior to that which governs rude matter. 
The earth itself, from the elevation we were at, seemed 
to have lost its general convex shape, and now looked 
as if it were a huge basin, so singularly did it appear 
to concave itself. Instinctively I realized that this was 
the appearance it would naturally assume to a person 
who looked upon it- through bodily eyes from the great 
height at which we now were ; but it was not so easy 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 219 

to understand why a spirit whose sense of sight was 
unimpeded by physiological organs or conditions — a 
spirit to whom the electric atmosphere, which lies em- 
bosomed in the outer air — served as the vehicle of ocular 
knowledge, should behold it in the same way. 

But while studying the answer to the first problem, 
the solution of the second came to me, and I saw that 
the similarity of phenomena, viewed from opposite 
states, was attributable solely to the former habitudes 
of my mind, and to the association of ideas. 

Thotmor saw &y embarrassment, and the conclusions 
on the subject to which I had arrived. " Eight 1" 
said he. "But/ 7 — ere another moment elapsed I re- 
plied : " I think that Nature is a system of active 
forces, ever radiating from God as beams from a star — 
that they go out, and as constantly return to the point 
whence they emanated. 7 ' " Paradox ! Explain ! 77 " I 
mean that 77 — here a sudden thought struck me, and I 
said to the guide, " You have not dealt fairly by me ; 
you are not Thotmor, an Egyptian of the early cen- 
turies ; on the contrary, I am convinced that you have 
disguised yourself, and for certain reasons and purposes 
of your own assumed another name. You are — I feel 
perfectly convinced that you must be Socrates, the 
philosopher, come back for a time to pursue the old 
and honorable avocation, — the teaching and enlight- 
ment of the ignorant ; for Socrates alone, of all earth 7 s 
great children of yore, was the one who taught by 
asking questions of such as sought knowledge and wis- 
dom, where he sat to dispense them. Am I not right ?" 

The rare being gazed tenderly down into my eyes, and 
his countenance glowed with a radiance quite glorious 
and divine, as he replied : " Yes. — No. I am Socrates 



220 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

and not Thotmor ; and still am Thotmor and not So- 
crates. Here is another enigma. Do you comprehend ? 
Try ; for remember the human soul is infinite in its 
nature I Its capacities are boundless. You aspire to 
comprehend the mighty m secret of the Trine. You 
seek to become an acolyte of the imperial order of the 
Rosy Cross, and to re-establish it upon the earth ; and 
no True Rosicrucian dares shrink from attempting 
the solution of the mysteries and problems that human 
minds in heaven or on earth may conceive or propound. 
Our motto — the motto of the great order of which I 
was a brother on the earth, — an order which has, under 
a variety of names, existed since the very dawn of civil- 
ization on the earth — is ' Try/ " 

Again the same method ; again this strange weird 
being not only provokes to mental exertion, but reveals 
a clue to millions of profound and priceless secrets I 

He is then the great Ramus, the imperial lord of an 
imperial order, — that great and mystic brotherhood at 
whbse power kings and potentates have trembled most 
abjectly. And this lordly being condescends to teach 
a few of the mysteries of Being to my humble self, and 
through me to the world. How wonderful ! How my 
soul rejoices I Verily, from this day forth I will en- 
deavor to prove worthy of the kingly favor. 

This was my resolve ; how it was afterward forgotten 
has already been stated. Men ever neglect and forget 
their best friends ! But even this forgetfulness, so I have 
been told, was foreseen ; it was known long years ago 
that the painful career since accomplished, was the 
decree of a power above my feebleness, and it was 
known that all the terrible sufferings, trials, tempta- 
tions and repentances were to be instruments toward 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 221 

high and noble ends, not yet wholly, but to be wrought 
out in His own good time, who doeth all things well. 

And now, on this tenth day of February, eighteen 
hundred and sixty-one, as I look back over the ruins of 
the dead months, I resolve in my soul to Try — and, as 
near as may be, to approach the standard of goodness 
and use : for these are the ends sought to be attained 
by the Order. 

To resume : In reply, I said : " Yes, you are, this 
time, fully understood ; you are Thotmor, but adopt 
the methods of -Socrates, because they are best calcu- 
lated for the purposes of teaching ; and these methods 
are" — " Wisdom's, — and were applied practically by the 
great teacher," said he, interrupting the sentence, and 
completing it for me, but not quite as I had intended. 

"Now, scholar, answer the first question, and tell me 
what you think of Nature ?" 

11 1 think that Nature is an emanation from the Glo- 
rified Person of Deity ! Tell me, truly, is God a per- 
son V 

" As certainly and truly as that you are an individual, 
just so certain and truly is God an absolute Being— 
not a mere king — who, seated on the Throne of thrones, 
watches the procession of the worlds ; but the Inef- 
fable One is a working God, who pursues His march 
across the vast Eternities, reducing Chaos as He goes, 
and leaving a train of luminous worlds behind him. 
You shall know more of this hereafter. Go on : tell 
me what you think of Nature !" 

" The principles, I think, are radiations from Jeho- 
vah ; the purpose and design of this irradiation must 
be to perfect the universal organism ; by a commingling 
of forces and elements, by mutual and diverse action and 



222 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

counter action, the end sought is doubtless attained ; 
and it is through the same agencies that He reduces to 
Order, Law, and Symmetry the n 

I could go no further, for the reason that my concep- 
tion and descriptive power had run against the wall. 
He saw and pitied, while he completed the sentence 
for me : 

" Nebulous Systems, which lie beyond the pale of 

the inhabited and looking Universe of Forms" 

Whoever reads these pages, and clearly comprehends 
the meaning of his last fifteen words, can but agree 
that here was a stretch of thought amazing, and abso- 
lutely awful to even contemplate. They distinctly im- 
ply that God is still making worlds — worlds hereafter 
to be peopled with glowing forms of a life, intellect, 
and beauty, that shall put to the blush the highest ideal 
of the loftiest Seraph, now in being, when the present 
Universe shall have died of hoary age. 

Yes ; Thotmor's thought is a vast and mighty one. 
Do you not think so, my reader ? Try to compass and 
master this idea, so terrifically great and sublime, and 
you will forthwith coincide with me. 

What becomes of many of the ordinary conceptions 
of God's character now extant among even the philoso- 
phers — conceptions so unjust, puerile, and even con- 
temptible, as many of them are ; what becomes of them 
all, in the presence of the estimate of the great Crea- 
tive Energy just conveyed to your brain ? They fall 
and sink into utter nothingness, while this one looms 
up before our mind's eye in proportions majestic and 
grand. We catch an intuitive glimpse of its outlines — 
its edges ; but the whole thought is too great for our 
puny brains to contain. Try to master it, and ere 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 223 

long your soul, like mine, will fold its wings in pres- 
ence of its majesty. 

" The Principles and First Elements, after per- 
forming one round of duty, return to the Fountain 
Head, become newly charged with portions of His 
essence, refilled with the Deific energy, and then go 
forth again to complete and finish what, under a less 
perfect form, they have before commenced ; for all prin- 
ciples and elements are at bottom only one — but one 
which acts under a thousand different forms : — all sci- 
ence is based on Music, or Harmony ; Harmony is but 
Geometry and Algebra — these are but Mathematics ; 
this is but one branch of Celestial Mechanics, which 
in turn is only Number — but number in action ;" said 
the august presence at my side, as he completed the 
magnificent lesson — a lesson so full, so pregnant with 
meaning, that my reader will not soon exhaust its treas- 
ures, even though he most persistently may ' Try.' 

Still benignly gazing on me, Thotmor said : " What 
thinkest thou of Nature ?" 

Great God ! that identical question a fourth time ! 
How is it possible to answer it? I felt that, clear as my 
intellect now was, it would be sheerly impossible to 
proceed one single step further in definition, and was 
about to abandon the attempt, when a voice, sweeter 
than the dulcet melody of love, softer than the sounds 
to which dreaming infants listen, more persuasive than 
the lip of beauty, whispered : " Try ! the Soul groweth 
tall and comely, and tvaxeth powerful and strong only 
as it putteth forth its Will I Mankind are of seven great 
orders : the last and greatest are the Genii of the Earth, 
the Children of the Star-beam, the Inheritors of the Tem- 
ple. Weak ones can never enter its vestibules ; but only 



224 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

those tuJw Try, and trying for a time, at length become 
victors and enter in. Man fails because of feeble, sleep- 
ing, idle Will — succeeds, because he wakes it up and ever 
keeps it ivakeful /" 

In an instant I turned to find whence these spoken 
words proceeded ; and a sight of rare, surpassing 
beauty, such as ravished every sense of my inner being, 
fell upon my gaze. A female of regal aspect floated on 
beside the form of Thotmor ; her radiant mien, beauty 
of form, loveliness of expression, and the grace of her 
every movement, were such that the language we apply 
to embodied woman can never convey an adequate idea 
of the peerless Queen before me. It was from her lips 
that the spoken words had come. 

As I gazed in utter bewilderment upon the houri, 
Thotmor smiled, and said : 

" This is Cynthia, whose sun I am ; my moon she is : 
she is mine — I am hers— we are one ! On earth her 
body sleeps ; here her soul is awake, and tuned to the 
melodies of Heaven. We are working for the World, 
and in that work find pleasure and excellent joy ; but 
we only reached the bliss by Trying. Do thou the 
same, and tell thy earthly brothers to do likewise I" 

Thus recalled to mental effort, I strove to conquer 
my admiration for the woman, and address myself to 
thought ; albeit the task was very difficult. 

We are human beings still, whether in or out of the 
body ; and the same surmises, guesses and wonderments 
possess us, wheresoever we are. Thus, I could hardly 
help envying the Egyptian his glorious prize, nor won- 
dering if he did not see much trouble and come to deep 
grief on her account. Certain it is, that no man on 
earth cauld rest quiet with such a treasure of beauty 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 225 

under his care ; and it struck me that, even in the Soul- 
world, all people could not be free from all the human 
passions, as we know them here below ; and that jeal- 
ousy might disturb the Oriental's peace of mind, I could 
scarcely doubt. 

He saw my mind ; and, turning to the full moon of 
beauty who clung to his side, said to her, " Answer for 
me IV She did so, and said : " Purity is the soul of 
Beauty, Symmetry is its spirit, and Justice is its body. 
Every human being, in the Soul-worlds or elsewhere, 
loves nothing so well as to be well thought of by all 
other human beings. Ambition, Emulation, and Per- 
sonal Joy are the three bars, which constitute the pivot 
of all human character. The bad passions, as envy, 
strife, anger, lust, and revenge, on earth, not only de- 
stroy the body, but also mar the spirit. Every one of 
these, and all other evil things, thoughts or deeds, in- 
evitably leave their marks upon the soul, and deep, sad 
marks they are. 

" The law of Truth, the law of Individuality, and the 
law of Distinctness, (by means of which the man is 
rounded out into a perfect character, and is afterwards 
kept for all eternity totally distinct from any other 
being in all the universe), reign in the Soul-world ; nor 
can they ever be broken or evaded ; — consequently, 
there can be no mistakes in regard to Identity. Cyn- 
thia is Cynthia, Thotmor is Thotmor, Clarinda is Cla- 
rinda, and John is John — and all must remain so till 
the end of the Ages. It is so now, whatever it may have 
been in the ages wherein the angels fell. 

" On earth, the real thoughts and sentiments of a soul 
are hidden beneath the garniture of language and as- 
sumption ; — not so here in the Soul-world, where every 
10* 



226 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

one must appear to be what he really is at the moment. 
There are no disguises ; and while any one can do 
wrongly, if they so elect, yet they cannot mtend wrong 
and pretend right, for the presence of an evil thought 
in the soul, is immediately marked upon its surface — 
upon its features, by a law of that very soul itself ; and 
these marks and distortions are so very plain and un- 
mistakable, that all Heaven can read them at a glance ; 
and such instantly gravitate to the Middle State. 

"Self-preservation, therefore, and self-respect keep 
Heaven clear of sin ! 

" In the second place, it is well known here, as it 
ought to be on earth, that the deceiver is, in all cases, 
the deceived ; the wrong-doer wrongs himself more than 
any one else ; and the unhappiness a person may cause 
another to feel, must be expiated by the causer, not by 
the victim! This is a safeguard against jealousy here. 
No one will do an ill deed if he is aware that it cannot 
be kept secret, even for a moment. 

" In the next place, I chose Thotmor, and he me, be- 
cause of all the inhabitants of this starry land, he suited 
me the best, and I him ; wherefore, there is a stronger 
attachment between us than there possibly could be be- 
tween either and any other individual in the great Do- 
main. All Heaven knows this fact also : hence, no one 
in Heaven would attempt to sunder a natural tie, be- 
cause they are well aware, that, even if that were pos- 
sible, misery, and not contentment, must be the inevita- 
ble result. Wherefore none in Heaven would attempt 
such a thing, and no one from other regions could essay 
it." 

Like drops of water on the sands of Sahara, her 
blessed words sunk into my soul: the Wisdom-cham- 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEA 227 

bers received a new family of ideas ; and my soul 
felt exceeding glad of this instalment of the treasures 
of the upper worlds. 

For a moment, I remained pensive and silent ; and 
then, inspired by the ineffable presence of Thotmor and 
his Cynthia, who floated on beside him — his pearly arm 
engirdling her glorious form in an embrace, which spoke 
of something higher and holier than we mortals call 
love— I answered : " It now seems to me that Nature 
is the birth-place of Affection, the tomb of all evil, the 
primary school of human souls, the alembic of the Vir- 
tues, the gymnasia of Thought, the " — 

I was forced to stop again ; nor could I go on. Thot- 
mor came to my relief, and added : 

" A plane inclined, beginning at Instinct, and ending 
in Omniscience ; the telegraphic system of all Being, 
connecting its remotest points ; the workshop of the 
Infinite and Eternal God ; the grand orchestra of all 
the Symphonies, and the ladder reaching from Non- 
entity to the great Dome, beneath which sits in awful 
majesty the Lawmaker of the Universe, the Great 
I Am." 



<&\\xm. 



This book, which after all is but prefatory to a vol- 
ume on the general subject of the life beyond, which we 
are, ere long, to give to the world, would be incomplete 
were we to neglect or omit to answer certain very preg. 
nant questions, that must arise in the mind of the read- 
er, as he or she proceeds in its perusal : accordingly, 
this section, a short one, shall be devoted to that end. 

As I rose in the air, and passed over a sunny region. 



228 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

which had not felt the effects of the terrific storm of thun- 
der and rain, there came a feeling, that there was a vast 
difference between my then present state, and that in 
which the aerial journey from the city in the East was 
accomplished. In both cases, the altitude reached was 
probably the same, or approximately so ; but in the first 
flight I was not one-fiftieth part as conscious, or awake, 
as during the second : there was also a difference in the 
rapidity of motion. 

The individual calling himself Thotmor, and concern- 
ing whose reality I am perfectly convinced, now moved 
through the air at but a slight elevation above me ; 
while formerly, I had not seen him at all, previous to 
making his acquaintance near the house of the sleepy 
student. 

At one time, among my other miseries, there pos- 
sessed me a very uncomfortable apprehension, lest, by 
some mishap, my guide should be unable to sustain me, 
and that I should fall. Now the reader will say, " That 
was impossible ; for a spirit, being lighter than air, 
must necessarily ascend" Another one will say, " True, 
so it must ; but being so very much lighter than air, 
what is to hinder it from going up with a rush — what 
prevents it from going up vertically with the speed of a 
rifle ball, seeing that the pressure of air mast force it 
upward with a power almost inconceivable ? How is it 
that a spirit gets to earth at all, seeing that light bodies 
cannot displace heavy ones ; and how could a spirit move 
off at an angle at all V 7 

These, and a multitude of other questions were pre- 
sent in my mind, along with many novel suggestions, 
provoked by the peculiar circumstances in which the. 
narrator of these experiences was placed. 



DEALINGS WITH THE BEAD. 229 

Let us try to make the matter clear, by remarking, 
in the first place, that the prevailing sensation was such 
as is experienced by those who go up into the great 
deep in balloons, during their novitiate in the business 
of cloud-climbing. 

Among other questions that arose, and which I put 
to myself, was this : " Do I as a spirit, for the time 
being, actually ascend ? Am I really here, on the breast 
of earth's great cushion — the atmosphere ? or is all this 
an experience of the soul — an episode of dream-life ? 
Am I really here, or is this, that so resembles me, only 
an alter ego — a second self — the result of a pushing forth 
of faculty ? Is it a mere phantom, which my soul has 
shaped, and sent forth, and then lodged its intelligence 
in, for a time, by way of experiment and freak ? If so, 
how is it done ? 

" In either case, the question is a grave one ; for if it 
be not myself, here in the air, but only a soul-created 
phasma, of what sort of materials is this appearance 
made, and whence comes the wierd and mighty power 
that can call these images into being, and endow them 
with all the resemblance of reality ?" 

These and similar queries suggested themselves to 
me ; and while the last one was still fresh jn my mind, 
I noticed that the earth beneath me was smiling in 
glad freshness ; — for the storm had not passed'over that 
part of the land, although even then and there it was 
raining — a soft, gentle, sweet and sunshiny summer 
rain, such as happens when the " Devil whips his wife " 
— I beg pardon — used to whip her ; for, according to 
modern philosophers, of the " Harmonial ;? order, he 
has deceased these eleven years, and, of course, cannot 
thus chastise her any more. Be that as it may, how- 



230 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

ever, it was raining ; and here was an opportunity to 
solve a much mooted point, namely : " Do spiritual 
beings get wet in a rain storm? Do the rain-drops 
and hail-stones pass through them, or do they bound off 
as from a solid body ?" Most attentively did I make 
the closest observations, in order to be able to solve 
the question. I decided that the rain passed through us, 
yet touched us not at all, as apparently did the wind. 
Preferring to make every point as clear as possible, I 
shall attempt to illustrate this one, even at the risk of 
a little prolixity and repetition. The subject is an in- 
teresting one, and demands it. 

Now, everybody knows that nothing less dense than 
water, save air, in violent motion, will turn aside or 
shed it ; and that which constitutes the spiritual body 
is, of course, infinitely finer and more subtle than even 
the rarest gas, much less the thick and heavy atmo- 
sphere surrounding this and all other globes. 

This fact being conceded, it follows that all such 
bodies must be pervious ; and they are so, and not so at 
the same time. Remember that spirit is not soul ; for- 
get not that the latter is the Winged Globe, of which I 
have spoken, and the former is a projection, an out- 
creation from it. This out-projection or spirit is, of 
course, perfectly atomless and unparticled. We gaze 
into a mirror, and behold a semblance of ourselves ; 
and the same figure may be gazed at by a hundred thou- 
sand eyes ; everybody will at once acknowledge that 
the likeness is perfect and real, yet every one knows 
that not one single atom of any sort of matter enters 
into its composition. 

It cannot be handled, but everybody can see it ; nor 
would a pistol ball, shot through the head of that 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 31 

figure, harm it in the least degree, because it is not 
substance, although it is substantial. It is not a sha- 
dow, for it is real, — which latter fact is proved daily by 
those who first coax this image to enter a camera, and 
no sooner does it get fairly iu than the clever artist 
impales it against a tablet of glass, or ivory, and lo ! 
everybody carries the chained image to his home for 
everybody else to look at, who chooses so to do. This 
is Photography. 

Now, the wind and rain, cold and heat, are as power- 
less and inefficient to act upon a spirit as they are upon 
the image in the camera, or a mirror. In other words, 
the spiritual body is a projected image of the soul, — is 
a sort of objectified subjective state ; or is a fixed idea 
— an out-creation.* 

The image in the glass is not made up of parts, — it is 
a unit, — an entity, — is homogeneous. " If so, how can 
it be scientifically true that the rain passes through it ? 
If it does so pass, it must make holes through it ; and 
if holes are made through it, then its homogeneity is at 
an end for evermore. 77 

This is a fair, as it certainly is the strongest object- 
ion that can be urged against the position assumed. 
But the answer, which forever sets it at rest, is this : 
" Spirit is not matter. 77 

The subject may be further illustrated, thus : Suppose 

a large sheet of flame issuing, not from a jet, but from 

the edge of a hollow disk, and that the rush of gas is 

. great enough to impel the sheet of flame six feet into the 

air. Now, try to wet this flame ; it will take some time 

before you succeed in the enterprise. Take a watering 

~ ~~~ "~ 

* This sublime truth will be elaborated at length in the second 

volume, of which this is the first.— Pub. 



232 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

pot and sprinkle it to your heart's content ; but, although 
the drops of water will reach the ground through the 
disk, and displace portions thereof, for an infinitesimal 
space of time, yet they will neither wet nor touch it. 

Every drop of water has an envelope of an electric 
nature, doubtless ; and that each particle of flame has 
a corresponding one is self-evident. The respective 
envelopes may come in contact with each other, but 
their respective principles — never. 

Now, the spirit is far more difficult to reach than 
would be this flame. As stated before, every perfect 
thing is globular : the sun, within the brain, I have 
called by its true name — a winged globe ; the electric 
moon, whose seat is in, on and about the solar plexus, 
is literally an electric moon, perfectly globular. The 
human being, body, soul, spirit, is surrounded by an at- 
mosphere of the same form, or nearly so ; and this 
enveloping aura, this spirit-garb, protects its centre — 
the man — from injury or contact with other things 
(unless, indeed, it be voluntarily broken down, or yields 
to assaults from without by the abjectivity of the will). 
True, a person may be injured magnetically through 
this sphere, by pressure or malaria, although itself 
remains unruptured and intact ; just as a pistol ball 
will kill a man, without actually touching his flesh. If 
he chance to be dressed in silk, it may drive its bulk 
into his flesh, yet not a particle of lead shall touch it. 

I observed the aura or sphere which surrounded 
myself and my two glorified companions. The rain- 
drops passed through it, as also through portions of our 
respective persons, just as they would through a sheet 
of flame-lightning, but without actual contact or wet- 
ting either. We have every reason to believe that, as 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 233 

we ascend, the air grows colder, until at the height of 
forty-five miles the cold must be in the neighborhood of 
three thousand degrees below zero. Now, spirits fre- 
quently pass through this — they must pass through it to 
reach us, yet they are unaffected thereby, for the reason 
that they are superior to all material influences. 

Moses, Elias, the spiritual visitants of the Patriarchs, 
of the man of Uz, he whom John saw, — and others, had 
to come through this intense cold ; and the fact that they 
did so proves that material forces have but little, if 
any effect upon spirit. It therefore defies one extreme, 
and consequently ought the other. It does so. For 
the spirits seen walking about in the fiery furnace, 
which was heated seven times hotter than its wont, for 
the especial grilling of Messieurs Shadrach, Meshach 
and Abednego, bade defiance to fire ; — a fatal fact 
against the theory of a physical hell — the spirits proving 
not only water, ice, and wind, but jfrre-proof also ! 

Continuing my scrutiny, I observed that never a drop 
of rain fell upon the centre of the heads of either of the 
aerial party : for just over the crown of every human 
being in the body is a thick bone ; out of the body, a mag- 
netic shield, impenetrable by anything whatever ; for 
every drop of rain slides off it, as from an iron roof. 
Place a spirit under a stream of falling water, and the 
central globe would instantly condense to infinitesimal 
proportions, so firmly embraced by its shield as to 
resemble the original monad ; nor could water ever 
come in contact with it, any more than the same water 
could come in contact with a plate of iron at a white 
heat, which every one knows is a physical impossibility. 
I humbly trust that I have been understood. 

In reply to " How can a spirit reach earth at all, or 



234 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

move through air at any angle up or down ?" I reply : 
Electrically. It projects an image of itself to where it 
would be ; —every man who thinks of a distant point 
does the same, only that the thing cannot be seen with 
earthly eyes. There is a magnetic railway between the 
projection and the projector, along which this latter 
moves. 

Throw forth an image by glasses across the street. 
It will find no difficulty in reaching the spot whither 
you send it. Analogous to this is the power of soul to 
go whither it listeth, unimpeded, and of its own free 
will. 

The ultimatum of all philosophy is, to teach men how 
to live ; to instruct them how to die ; establish a con- 
viction of immortality ; and explain how this latter is, 
and why, and to whither it shall lead. The sole busi- 
ness of this book, and that which is to follow in due 
season, is not to controvert any current system of phi- 
losophy — Harmonial, Spiritualistic, or otherwise — but to 
present, not a mere theory or hypothesis on the subject 
of an hereafter and its sequences, but to give forth 
what I know to be the truth, so far as that truth ex- 
tends ; nor do I fail to be impressed with a deep assur- 
ance that, although much herein given necessarily an- 
tagonizes a few of the popular Spiritual theories, yet 
I believe that that which I have now given concerning 
the soul and its destiny, is perfectly true and correct. 
I care not how much soever the reader may doubt the 
aerial experiences herein narrated — for these are but 
illustrative, at best, and in other respects are of little 
account — yet the Theory I knoiv to be the only true one 
yet advanced ; and it is to the principles wherein this 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 235 

theory is founded, that I call the attention of the Think- 
ing World, and challenge its respect. 

Not a human being, whom I ever saw, was fully satis- 
fied with either Modern Spiritualism, or what is called 
Harmonial Philosophy ; for the more a man bases his 
hopes of a life hereafter upon either of them, the more 
he stands on slippery ground. Doubt after doubt seizes 
on the mind, until at last people turn away, sad-hearted 
and desperate, from so-called systems of Immortalism, 
to take refuge in the church, which erewhile they so 
loudly berated and condemned— resort once again to 
the Blessed Book, or else unhappily drift out upon the 
shoreless, hopeless sea of atheism. There are untold 
multitudes who will gladly hail anything that promises 
to remove the dreadful doubts concerning, not only 
their continued existence, but their chances of bliss be- 
yond the veil. To such this book and its fellow comes ; 
for the benefit of such they both are, and are to be sent 
forth upon the world's great tide. 

Thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the truths here 
written — with the principles set forth and running like 
a gold- vein through that portion which is descriptive 
mainly — no one can help feeling strong in the certitude 
of an hereafter — this being the only attempt ever yet 
made in this country to treat of the soul per se, and in 
its higher and deeper relations, so far as the writer is 
aware. 

Concerning the absolute origin and final destiny of 
the soul itself, the answer to the question, What is God, 
and a few others of equal import, the reader must wait 
for the second volume ; for, in the present, we have only 
entered the outskirts of the illimitable course — have 
scarcely touched the preface of the mighty volume, 



236 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

Soul. Herein we are only at the top of one of the less- 
er hills, from which we catch a faint, very faint view, 
and hear but the distant fhrobbing pulses of the vast 
ocean, on whose swelling bosom, and upborne by whose 
wisdom-crested waves all men shall ere long sail. 

As true lovers of our race, we ask all good people to 
embark with us anon upon an intellectual voyage across 
the Deep, in search of facts and truths far more stately 
and sublime than those usually purporting to come from 
super-mundane sources. 

All truths are necessarily dogmatic ; nor has any 
attempt herein been made to hinder their expression 
from being the same. Our great Master and Exemplar 
in virtue was dogmatic — why not his followers be the 
same? 

It seems essential, at this point, that the writer should 
say something, not concerning the spiritual realms, but 
of the man-spirit — the self — the developed and develop- 
ing monad. Now, what is a monad ? The reply is : 
Something quite analogous to, but not exactly, the Leib- 
nitzian ; Particle/ but that which is to universal spirit 
precisely what an atom is to universal substance or 
matter — with this difference : you cannot cut an idea 
into halves or pieces, for it is, was, and ever will be, a 
unit ; so is a monad. 

An atom of matter is divisible to infinity — a single 
grain of sand being, by a mental process, capable of 
disintegration so great, that were each portion to be 
separated from its fellow by only the millionth of an 
inch, yet the vast concave of the dome, the walls of the 
sidereal heaven, the awful height and depths of space, 
the dizzy steeps of the great Profound, would not afford 
room to hold them all, even though the worlds were 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 237 

rushed out of being for accommodation's sake. Yet 
not one of these portions would be spirit, because that 
is indivisible ; they can never be. It is a philosophic 
truth, as well as a scientific axiom, that " Matter is 
divisible forever ; spirit is not. 77 

Beasts have spirits, but not immortal ones ; for the 
reason that they are the result of mere physical energy, 
and natural elements acted on by natural forces. Their 
mission is to serve certain uses, the greatest of which is 
that of affording, in some mysterious way, temporary 
homes for higher beings, or rather for what is there- 
after to become such — as already alluded to in the ar- 
ticle on Transmigration. 

. Nothing material is endowed with perpetuity ; for 
nothing particled can ever be so. True it is, that the 
spirit of a beast is many degrees finer in texture, and 
more sublimated than the luminiferous ether by which we 
come in contact with colors ; but the soul of a man is 
myriads of degrees more subtile in constitution than even 
this essential part of animals. The last is particled, the 
former homogeneous, sui generis, Deific in origin, pecu- 
liar in nature, expansive in power, infinite in capacity 
of acquirement, and probably eternal in duration. 

Comparisons are useful : Suppose, then, that the sacred 
rite is to be celebrated that shall call a new soul into 
outer being. Well, at the moment >of orgasm, there 
leaps forth from the very heart of the winged globe a 
monad ; with the speed of light, it rushes down the 
spinal column, supplied in its route with a nervo-mag- 
netic garment — a voluntary contribution from every 
particle of his physical being. It reaches the neighbor- 
hood of the prostate gland, passes through it, during 
which it receives additional envelopes, of a nature easily 



238 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

understood. Its next leap is to the prepared ovum, 
which it only reaches after taking refuge in a hollow, 
shell, attached to what is called the " head of a sperma- 
tozoa," which in itself is the half germ (the ovum being 
the other) of the physical structure. 

Imagine, if you please, a monad just incarnated in 
many folds. Its color is a pearly white, approaching 
the hue of pure fire ; its bulk, with its investments 
about one-tenth that of the head of a small pin ; with- 
out them, abtmt so much less that probably a million 
might float without contact in a single drop of water. 
Its envelopes are the very incarnations and condensa- 
tions of electricity and magnetism ; and so possess the 
power of repelling uncongenialities, and of attracting 
whatever is essential to its development, during and 
subsequent to its temporary home at the gestative cen- 
tre. The essences and life of all that the parent may 
eat and drink, or breathe — as perfumes, odors, and so 
forth — are gravitative to the precious point ; and so the 
monad unfolds, and its envelopes grow ; the one des- 
tined to become a living, active soul — the other, the 
temple of flesh and blood, in which it will, for three 
score years and ten, more or less, exercise and improve 
its faculties and powers. Now, this process is exactly 
analogous to that whereby God Himself brings humans 
into being ; only £hat instead of having a female form 
to shield them (the monads), He made use of matter in 
other forms— worlds, and substantial things. It is easy 
to see how the first human being was brought into ex- 
istence, albeit the full statement thereof belongs to an- 
other volume than the present — the first part of the 
present one merely ghing an outline thereof. 

Man's body is of the earth, earthy; it serves the 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 239 

soul's purposes for a time, and when it can no longer do 
so, we die because it is the nature of matter to decay 
and change ; but soul being of God, the Honover, Aum, 
the Sacred, the Holy, the Great Mystery, lives on 
forever and for evermore ; and in all human probability- 
unfolds continually and incessantly. 

Could you procure a microscopic view of a monad, 
you would behold a perfect resemblance of a human 
being of infinitesimal proportions, standing at full 
length, but with closed eyes, in the midst of a surround- 
ing and protecting sphere, formed of something a myriad 
degrees more sublimated than the rarest imponderable 
known to science.* 

Soul has two methods of increase : first, it feeds on 
notions, thoughts, sensations, ideas, emotions, hopes, 
joys, fears and anticipations, bas.ed on that which is ex- 
ternal of itself. The experiences and discipline thus 
derived, constitute Progression. On the other hand, it 
creates, moulds, and fashions things from itself, and by 
the exercise, grows intuitive and strong. This is De- 
velopment, or Unfolding. Souls are all of the same 



* " Over the graves of the newly dead, may, on dark nights, be seen 
hovering the forms of those within them — strange, ghastly, ghostly 
forms they are. The exhalations of the decaying bodies assume the 
shape and proportions of the living being, and affright the passers 
by. 7 ' — Jung Stilling. 

" Burn a rose, and then mix its asheswith water in a bowl ; set it 
away in a still place, and in a few days a thin, glairy scum will rise 
upon the surface, and arrange itself in the exact form of the original 
flower."— Report of Acad. Sci. , Paris, 1834. y^ 

The acorn, split in two and exposed to a strong light and high mag- 
nifying power, will disclose the perfect outlines of an oak tree. The 
germ of all things contains the likeness of what hereafter they are 
destined to become, and so also does the germ or monad of a man. 

Pub. 



240 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

genesis, but, like trees of the forest, there are vast dif- 
ferences between them. Men often speak of " full souls, 
big souls, weak souls, strong souls, lean and fat souls," 
and so on — thus leaping to a truth by a single bound 
of intuition. For no greater truths exist than those 
words convey. People grow weary by labor, that's 
physical exhaustion ; and of pleasure, that's sen- 
sational weariness ; and of thinking, hoping, cogitating 
on a single subject, that's soul-tiredness — for all of 
which rest is demanded, or rather a change of attention 
and occupation. 

The body is a laboratory, wherein the most beautiful 
and useful chemical labors are carried on ; and it ex- 
tracts and distils the finest essences from all things it 
manipulates. True it is, that a coarse man will only 
extract physical energy from beef and wine ; but it is 
also true that these things contain something far more 
rare, and so subtle that it requires a stomach of finer 
texture and more elevated order to extract the higher 
essences, that go to inspire genius, develope poets, and 
sustain philosophers in thinking. 

Some persons manufacture bleaching salts and oil of 
vitriol ; others compound the delicate odors which float 
upon the air of palaces, and radiate from the garments 
of refined women ; yet both are chemists. And so of 
human bodies ; they feed on the essences of food, and 
convert these essences into the most spiritual forms pos- 
sible ; this last is duly laid away in numberless maga- 
zines, or store-houses, which we call the u Nervous Gan- 
glia." When these stores are distributed, the body 
grows strong. When the supply is exhausted, we be- 
come faint and weary, and finally fall asleep, whereupon 
the soul-sun sets for a while (vide the case of the stu- 



DEALINGS WITH THE i)EAD. 241 

dent), withdraws from the brain, passes down the verte- 
brae, enters the solar plexus, changes the refined essences 
of the ganglia into pure fire, endows it with portions of 
its own divine life, sends a supply to every point where 
the communications are not cut off by disease ; and so 
increases tke vigor, life, and bulk of the body. 

When this recuperative work is done, the soul some- 
times rests'awhile, and remains shut out from this world 
for hours ; during which time our existence is vegeta- 
tive only, and we are in a deathly slumber, so far as 
outward consciousness is concerned. At such times, the 
soul is making itself familiar with the elements of that 
lofty and transcendant-knowledge which all good human 
beings are destined to fully acquire after death. It is 
talking with God, and God is in turn conversing with 
it. It is perusing its volume of Reminiscences, and 
these sometimes vaguely, dimly flash forth on the out- 
ward memory, causing men to doubt the story that they 
have not pre-existed. Sometimes it is intently listening 
to the glorious melodies which the seraphim sing, or 
• drinking in the knowledge of archangels j for it is in- 
deed true that— ^ 

" Sometimes the aerial synod loends, 
And the mighty choir descends, 
And the brains of men thenceforth 
Teem with unaccustomed thoughts." 

The soul returns from the inner to the outer life, and, 
in spite of philosophy or reasoning to the contrary, will 
entertain vague memories, indistinct yet half-positive 
assurances of having been aforetime in some other place 
than earth, or hell, or heaven ; nor can it get rid of this 
conviction, because it is true ! We have existed some- 
where else ! We have lived and acted parts before, 
11 



242 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

long ages ago, before this world was ushered into being 
from the fiery vortex of the Sun of suns ; we have lived 
and moved and had a being in a strange and far-off 
world. 

+ A realm of mystery and wonder, memory-filled, sublime ; 
Not in this world, or hell, heaven, space or time ! 

And so we sleep. At other times, without arousing 
the body, the soul cautiously re-ascends its daily throne, 
takes advantage of the physical quiescence- and slum- 
ber, and plays many a fantastic trick with the mate- 
rials in its magazines, — all for its own amusement and 
that of its phantasmal comrades and lookers on, who 
do not fail to gather round the bedside and join the 
spectral sport. 

Sometimes it overhauls the sheets of memory, sport- 
ively, racily, jocundly, mixes them all together, puts 
incongruous events alongside of bitter remembrances ; 
takes a character here, and one there, and forces them 
to perform the most ridiculous and absurd dramas 
imaginable ; nor does imagination itself escape, for the 
soul touches it, and forthwith it produces, like a fecund 
mother, and the jiight-born offspring are forced to mingle 
themselves in one indescribable medley, along with 
things of pure memory and reminiscence, thus forming 
an olla podrida without order, system, head, foot, be- 
ginning or end. We are dreaming !* 

* An objection may be urged here, to the effect that animals 
dream, as well as human beings. Dogs bark in their sleep, and mani 
fest all the phenomena of dreaming. Has the dog, therefore, got a soul 
that pernoctates, goes abroad, and so forth ? To this I reply : It is by 
no means certain that the sleep-barking of dogs and other beasts is 
anything more or less than a merely physical, nervous agitation. I am 
not sure that they really do have dreams. Still, on this point I am 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 243 

At other times, having placed proper sentinels to 
guard the body and telegraph to itself on the least ap- 
pearance of danger, the royal soul, feeling its high-born 
nature demanding a supply not to be found within 
itself always, leaves for a while the scene of its sojourn, 
and leaps upward to the starry vault, to hold converse 
with the stars and their holy tenants : Then *we have 
visions ! 

Again, it takes journeys over the earth's surface, 
visits old, familiar, or new and unknown places, persons 
and things : Then we are clairvoyant. 

These are moods and phases of the soul's existence 

and activities, but they are not the highest ; for, at 

still other times, it arrays itself in its most regal garb, 

and, marshaled by an army itself has called into being, 

solemnly marches forth to attend The Council of the 

Hours !— and here a holy awe steals over me, as this 

trait and power of the soul is revealed. At such time3 

we prophecy and become familiar with events; persons, 

principles, and things yet unborn in time and space ; — 

we have receded behind the wall of consciousness, and 

bathed for a time in the sea of mystery, every billow 

and wavelet of which constitutes a destiny. For that 

;all things that are yet to be, at this moment exist as 

monads and uncarnated thoughts in the Mind of Minds, 

I there cannot be a shadow of doubt ; nether can there 



open to conviction, and just as soon as any well-bred dog, not one of 
your mongrel hounds either, shall tell me what he dreamed, I will an ■ 
nounce that highly interesting fact to the world ; but until one shall 
do so, I shall insist upon the' hypothesis, above set forth, that these 
somnolent exhibitions are in some way connected with what I call the 
process of monad-gestation, and not to the dreaming of the beast as 
such. 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

be one that man has been, still is, and hereafter will be, 
intromitted to this sacred labyrinth of knowledge, 
under certain conditions yet unknown to us. And yet 
man is a free-acting being. 

Bye-and-bye the sleep is ended, and we return to 
outer, every-day life. The soul's magazines have been 
stored full of the needful energies, both for itself and 
body ; and it can at will, and sometimes by the action 
of a power lying back of volition, send forth these 
fiery elements to warm up and invigorate the outer 
self, as occasion may demand. Thus comes the blush 
of love, the inspiration of song, and acting, the fire and 
energy of speech and oratory, the flames of lust and 
passion, the brutal vigor of the athlete and pugilist, the 
blaze of anger, and the sudden and awful courage and 
ferocity of those who, at other times, are poltroons and 
errant cowards. 

Of course, some people accumulate more of this fire 
than others, and some.are more sensitive to its action — 
even when it is quiescent — than less fine organizations 
possibly could be ; and these very sensitive persons 
will, from the effect this accumulated power has upon 
them, tell you more of an individual's character from a 
half hour's association, than others could after a dozen | 
years of intimacy, for they come in almost direct rap- 
port with the soul itself, with something of which the 
" sphere" is charged ; whereas those who are not so 
sensitive must base their verdict on what they see and 
hear. — the, others, on what they feel and know. 

This fact is beginning to be well known ; but tl^ere is 
a consideration arising out of it of vast importance. It 
is this : Those who are most sensitive are the very ones 
who absorb deepest of those energies. They draw it in 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. . 245 

like sponges, and give it out the same, as may be daily 
seen on .the platforms whence " spiritual mediums" ful- 
minate their doctrines. There you will see a fine, sensi- 
tive, delicate woman speaking for hours in tones of 
thunder, and with an energy sufficient to rack a far 
stouter frame to pieces, — physically sustained by what 
she draws from the audience, and returns likewise, — 
with something added from herself. Such persons, sit- 
ting in " circles," either draw off the very life of those 
with whom they join hands or come in contact, or else 
themselves are sponged dry.* Now, one of these sensi- 
tives will so absorb the sphere of persons with whom 
they may chance to be, that they may be led to do many 
a naughty thing, even against their own inclinations 
and judgment ; — especially is this true with reference 
to the tender passion^ Their conduct may be very 
reprehensible, their hearts be very pure. Of course 
this condition is a morbid one, and should be sternly 
fought against and battled down. 

The question is often asked, " Do spirits eat ?" 
Answer : In the Middle States, eating is a strong phan- 
tasy ; the inhabitants believe they eat. In the Soul- 
world stomachs are useless, as well as the organs of 
sex, but the soul absorbs nutriment spontaneously. 
There is no waste ! 

Having thus briefly replied to the objections likely to 
be raised, I now resume the narrative at the point 
where it was left incomplete. What further took place 
will be found in the next section. 

As the splendid sentences of Thotmor, recorded in 
a previous section, fell upon the hearing of my soul, that 

* For further light on this point see a book called " The Sexual 
Question," by the writer of this work, and shortly to be published. 



246 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

soul involuntarily bowed itself in awe : and as the ex- 
pression, " the workshop of the Eternal God ; the orches- 
tra of the Symphonies, the ladder reaching from Nothing 
to the Great Dome, beneath ivhich sits in artful majesty, 
the Great I am," — reached my understanding, there 
went up from the soul's deepest profound a desire to 
know who, what, and where was this supreme Ruler of 
the starry skies. 

Scarcely was this thought fairly formed, when a deep 
slumber gently but rapidly stole over me. How long it 
continued I know not, but when consciousness for a 
moment returned again, I found myself brushing the 
dust from my apparel, beneath the trees from which 
my first journey had commenced. This occupation 
could not have lasted more than a minute, when I 
started off mechanically toward a deeper nook, and 
more secluded spot among the trees and bushes, appa- 
rently guided by instinct, or directed by a power above' 
myself. And I lay me down, as if wearied with undue 
physical labor, and soon a gentle buzzing sound, like 
unto that made by myriad insects when the Day-God 
hies him to his slumber, and all the great, big world is 
still, lulled me into a sweet and soft repose. And a deep 
sleep fell upon my eyelids ; and in that strange, mys- 
terious rest, I experienced that which was not all a 
dream. I hasten to present the result of this last dis- 
play of power. 



Lightly, as floats the atom on a sunbeam, swiftly as 
the bird flies, gaily as a laughing child, a spiritual 
form sailed stilly through the Space. Beneath it rolled 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 247 

the globe, its black mountains, deep valleys, and all its 
silvery seas ; above it twinkled the starry shield of 
Heaven ; and afar off, on either hand, great suns looked 
out to see the moving panoply. 

And still the soul sped on ; ui*til, at last, its earthly 
home was in the distance, and all around the mighty 
Silence reigned. And still the soul swept onward ! No 
dizziness, no faltering, from the awful sense of height, 
alarmed it ; no fear beset its bounding, joyous, happy 
heart. That soul was not my own, for the reason that 
no man can possibly predicate ownership of a soul — the 
thinking-principle — Mind ; for soul is himself. He can 
speak of, and say, " my body, limbs, faculties, qualities/' 
and so forth, with correctness and propriety ; for these 
are his incidents, but soul is himself — that of which these 
incidents obtain. They are, to coin a word, the out- 
sphering of the inner being : the soul was me. 

In a little while, the question, " What, and why is 
this ? and whither am I going ?" rose in my mind. A 
silvery voice breathed silently into my spirit this re- 
sponse : " WSwsoiruly luilleth to knoiv, shallhiow, by rea- 
son of the relationship between himself and the other two 
members of the great Eternal Trine, provided always 
that the wish is good, and its realization would be pro- 
ductive of Excellence and Use. 

" No bad man can earnestly wish and will good, while 
/he is bad ; if he does, his failure is certain ; not so with 
the good and lofty soul ! It is always welcome to the 
banquet of knowledge ; nor is the gate of Wisdom ever 
closed to it. The good man can solve all mysteries ; 
the good woman sound the depths of all Music, Love, 
and Beauty. Thus the saying is literally, perfectly,, 
absolutely true, which affirms that if ye ' Seek first the 



248 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

Kingdom of God and his righteousness, all things else 
shall be added unto you V " 

The voice was that of the fair being, whom Thotmor 
called his own. Previously intent upon observing the 
rapid changes about m|, I did not, until that moment, 
realize that both these auroral spirits attended on this, 
my third flight. 

" Brother," continued the sweet being, " Forget not 
the first lesson ; the second, thou art now receiving." 

For a little while, still pondering on what I had been 
taught, and still moving forward and upward' I made 
no mental response or observation. Soon recurred to 
me, the phrase used by the female teacher a little time 
before : " And the two other members of the great 
Eternal Trine." I longed to know the meaning ; and 
at that instant a clearness of perception, power of con- 
ception, and ability of comprehension, was given to me, 
such as I never knew before. I asked mentally, how 
this came about, and the answer came to my understand- 
ing, through the channel of a clear intuition, and shaped 
itself in the following form, as nearly as words will 
hold it. 

" The earth is coarse, yet imprisons the refined. It is 
a dense, gross substance, a heavy rough body, but it has* 
a soul. The soul of the world is spirit. Every atom 
of matter has a moving, living, active, spiritual centre./ 
The matter enchains the spirit, and the spirit (the prin- 
ciples of Beauty, Use, Goodness, Music, Odor, Tone. 
Sound, Rhythm, Shape, Sympathy and Coherence, con- 
stitute the World-soul or spirit) — and the spirit ever 
struggles to free itself from its unwilling thraldom. It 
can only do so by working up the material of its prison 
house into forms of Excellence, Use, Beauty, Sound, 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 249 

Tone, Shape and Rhythm. When it does so, i\ escapes 
its jail, and goes back to God, whence it originally 
came, through the human organization, arid others less 
perfect, in the form of Odors, Music, Tone, Sound, 
Beauty (flowers, forests, &c.) Art, Color, and their cog- 
nates. A rose is that success in its struggle, which at- 
tends that amount and phase of spirit, working out its 
liberation, from and through matter, by means of its 
inherent self — the principles named. 

There are two Realms : Matter, filled with spirit, and 
Spirit (above, beyond), free of material encumbrance — 
the great Spiritual Ocean, in which all the worlds are 
floating.* The World-soul is spirit, negative : the 
great Ocean is spirit, positive. In it floats, rained 
down from the Infinite, myriads of existences, in the 
form of Monads — each one a particle of soul given off, 
so to speak, from the great Eternal Brain. 

These monads are not spirit negative, such as is con- 
tained in and constitutes the soul of the world, of mat- 
ter-in all its million forms of beasts, birds, reptiles, and 
vegetation ; nor spirit positive, such as constitutes the 
Sea whereon the worlds do float, and whose finer breath 

\ is the sphere of disembodied souls ; but they are the 
original soul-germs of immortal beings — they are the 
sparks which fell, and fall from God himself — particles 

Jot the Deific brain, unique, sui generis, unparticled, ho- 

* I realized this tremendous truth. The links of the chain are : Gra- 
nite Rock, Water, Atmosphere, extending about one hundred and fifty 
miles upward ; Electrical Sea, above the air, one hundred miles ; Mag- 
netic Ocean, one hundred more; above that, each remove being as 
great as between the first two, the ocean of Electrime, one hundred 
miles (the figures are approximative only). Next an ocean of Magnet- 
ime, then Ether, then Ethyle, and then the great Ocean of Spirit posi- 
tive. All the rest^ are cushions, as it were, to this, our world. 
11* 



) 

250 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

mogeneous: old as Deity, young as the new-born in- 
fant ; always existed, ever will exist. They are Pha- 
souls (Fay-souls,) or Monads. 

I now realized this strange truth : that the conscious 
soul that constituted me was now beyond, as it were, all 
the circumvolving material atmospheres surrounding 
earth, and that it was rapidly approaching the awful 
and vast Spiritual Ocean. Presently it ceased its 
flight, turned earthward, and made the following dis- 
covery : first, the Spiritual pervaded the Ethylic Sea : 
this, in turn, the Etherial ; that, the Magnetimic ; that, 
in turn, Electrimic ; that, the Magnetic ; that, the Elec- 
tric ; and that, in turn, the Earth Sphere, or l Odylic' 
emanation, which in turn pervades the atmospheric or 
Oxygenic ; so that man really breathes several, instead 
of a single atmosphere — the highest of which quickens 
the spirit, as the lower does the body. 

Turning the gaze outward, a fine, glorious, soft, sil- 
very sea was seen spreading away in all directions ; 
and the eye had no difficulty in traversing space, as on 
earth it has, through the corporeal structure and the 
several earth-airs. In this clear expanse of Spirit floats / 
uncounted globular monads, infinite in number, infini-/ 
tesimal in volume ; they are each enveloped in a fine 
electric substance, which surrounds them perfectly. The 
spiritual waves bear them on its bosom to the earth ; 
they, by a mysterious power, are drawn to the human N 
male brain, through the lungs ; they enter it, become 
lodged, remain till a certain physical work is completed, 
and then descend and effect their mission through the 
aid of the prostate gland. At certain times, they quit 
this, pass into the uterus, enveloped in the prostatic 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 251 

mulse ; are caught up — are carried to the womb, and — 
the work* of incarnation is effected.* 

Here, in these aerial Kingdoms, beyond the domain of 
matter and the sphere of what we call Nature, or Natu- 
ral Law, which of course does not govern Spirit, it hav- 
ing a mode of its own, I found two sorts of monads — 
the one perfectly globular, which constitutes the germ 
of the man — the others ovoidal, which constitutes the 
germ of the female. There are always two together : in 
couples they come Jrom the Eternal God, in couples 
they return. 

Placed in the uterus, these come in loving -relations 
with a subtile spirit originally in the female monad, 
subsequently energized in the woman, condensed in the 
1 ova/ and there is a blending of elements — the exter- 
nal of the monad, and the internal of the ova ; and from 
this blending springs a third something, which is the 
nucleus of the nervous body, so to speak. This nucleus 
robs all earthly things of their vital life — plants, flow- 
ers, food, drink, and so on — through the instrumental- 
ity of all the bodily organs. This union produces an 
improvement in both ; together, they attract the great 
spiritual substance or atmosphere pervading our air, 

| and then the child is quickened, and rises in the pelvis ; 
the very instant that the first spark of this great spir- 

j itual atmosphere passes into the babe, the monad in- 
creases in bulk, bursts its bonds or envelopes, passes 
from the foetal lungs to its brain, locates in the pineal 
gland, radiates through the corpus collossum, energizes 
its body, and, lo ! -a soul has entered upon a new career. 

* My business is with facts here ; therefore, I shall briefly state what 
I beheld, and leave others to theorize — satisfied, as I am, that I have, 
4>enetrat«d the Grand Secret. 



252 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

As said before, the soul grows — grows in two ways : 
first, by development — unfolding and awakening ; sec- 
ond, by acquired knowledge and experience. The lat- 
ter is of and for the earth, the former is of and for the 
soul itself. The one depends on circumstance and acci- 
dent, the other is above and beyond both. . There may 
never be much of the latter, but the former will, must 
go on to Infinity. Both may go on to a great extent on 
earth ; one certainly will in the Hereafter. 

All these things I felt, I saw, and knew, as I floated 
there on the shores of the Spiritual Kingdoms. 

Have you ever beheld the golden rain of a rocket, on 
a stilly summer night ? You have ? Well, just so God 
rains monads from Himself ! Spirit is the emanation 
from God's body ! Monads are corruscations from His 
Soul ! These truths can never be demonstrated ; all 
spiritual truth is real, and demonstration is effective 
only in reference to fleeting appearances. The logical 
faculty deals with what pertains to us on earth ; that 
which pertains to the Spiritual, requires some higher 
power of the soul. It has it — in the Intuitions. The 
logical faculty deals with Progress ; Intuition with De- 
velopment — unfolding : organic the one— central-soul . 
the other. Intuition will one day substantiate my dis- f 
coveries — when I am dead, and this writing is a cen- 
tury old. 

At present there is really no Spiritual Philosophy at 
all — scarcely an approximation thereto. We v have not 
even a spiritual nomenclature, and it is exceedingly 
difficult to convey spiritual facts or ideas in terms no- 
toriously adapted only to the expression of transitory 
earthly knowledge. 

Swedenborg's ideas are worth all others on the great 






DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 253 

subject, yet he even must be read in Latin or German, 
to be correctly understood. The English is the tongue 
of commerce — has too much ring of the dollar in it — to 
be used to express spiritual things. I shall try to con- 
vey my experiences so as to be understood ; yet how 
can I hope to be?— how make the fact known, that 
one human soul is actually larger, deeper, greater, than 
this whole material globe ? — that it has a wq : within 
the cerebrum ; a moon, the solar plexus ; that its sun 
rises (when we wake), a nd set s, retires to the vertebral 
column, sinks within the great ganglion, behind the 
stomach, when we sleep ; that it has stars, the nerve- 
villi ; planets, the ganglia ; it has a milky way, the great 
nervous cord ; comets, and, in short, everything that 
the outer world has, and much beside. How shall I 
express these facts so as to be understood ? for the 
terms I use do not convey the exact meaning. Who 
can understand that the soul has hills, mountains, val- 
leys, and so forth ? Yet it hath all these things in a 
higher and heavenly sense. Still more difficult will it 
be to prove or show that the Bible saying, that " the 
kingdom of heaven is within " every one, is a literal 
truth. The soul, per se, contains within itself the sum 
total of a dozen universes, each differing from the other, 
each one overlying that beneath it ; and just as fast as 
the soul outgrows, unfolds from, or ' vastates' either of 
these, new and higher ones become apparent, just as 
there dwells an appreciation of the refined and beauti- 
ful in every coarse man or woman ; but, in order that 
this esthetic sense shall come out and be active, a cer- 
tain discipline is essential, the result of which is a vas- 
tation and throwing off of what impeded and obstructed 
this beauty-sense. This is the end and mission of edu- 



254 DEALINGS WITH THE BEAD. 

cation or discipline. Our principal life — for we lead 
several at the same time, is the life of Imagination. 
We form, in fact create, by a mystic power not yet un-, 
derstood, whole galleries of paintings, figures, adven- 
tures and circumstances, * houses in Spain/ ' castles in 
the air.' These are our iii-ereations, because, while yet 
in the body, they loom up in the deep, distant depths of 
the mind, as images more or less vague and shadowy. 
They are as yet within us, pictured, as they are, upon 
the Quter surfaces of the soul, yet within the radius of 
the spirit. 

After death, these become the realities of our then 
existence, are the spontaneous out-births or out-crea- 
tions of our souls, and in them we live, move, and have 
our being — happy, joyous, pleasant, provided, our souls * 
are beautiful, calm, and serene ; but if they be not so, 
then those out-creations are full of horrors — serpents, 
noisome things, reptiles and dead men's bones. 

Pew, very few clairvoyants have ever beheld the reali- 
ties of the spiritual world. I know of but few, contem- 
poraneous or historical, whom I believe to have ever 
beheld the mysteries of the other life. Amongst the 
few, Behmen, Swedenborg, and Harris stand pre-emi- \ 
nent. The others — some of them honest, doubtless, but ( 
often deluded — have beheld their own out-creations, or 
the spiritual photographs on the &ky-surfaces of things \ 
and events pertaining to the earth. Every out-creation 
differs from all others ; hence arises the annoying dis- 
crepancies and diverse accounts of the same things, 
which we are constantly receiving — as, for instance, the 
spirit-land, the sun, moon, planets, and their occupants, 
as given by various so-called modern seers. The mem- 
ory of man is internal to himself while here, but after 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 255 

death it is, as it were t the furniture of the parlor where- 
in he lives on the other side of time ; and these tableau- 
vivants, or living pictures, when seen by clairvoyants, 
are passed off upon men as the revelation of realities, 
when they are but the ephemera of existence. Spirits 
tell us of their legs, lungs, bodies, lands, parks, and so 
forth, — and of their gardens, houses, trees, forests, and 
the like. All this is very well, and are spiritual facts 
to them, yet are but the out-creations of the human soul, 
which really has no legs, arms, and so forth, because the 
soul is mind, and can have no possible use for these 
things ; yet, for a long period, these very things are 
realities to the spirit and to clairvoyants. 

The fact is, good spirits do not appear one-tenth as 
often as imagined ; the majority ^ spiritual appear- 
ances are but out-creations — subjective images of the j 
seer, objectified— else are psychological projections of 
other minds— images impressed upon the susceptible 
person's brain. 

The spiritual world, as it is generally mapped out to 
us, appears but a few degrees in advance of this one, 
on the same general plane, if we are to believe the tales 
told us concerning it ; while the fact is, that world is 
not like this in any respect. It is not a place, literally 
speaking, but is a condition — a single one of thousands 
r that have been — of millions yet to be. Dream-life is a 
good illustration of my meaning. It is a condition of 
the soul. In it, we have a life actual, real, absolute ; 
not in far-off regions, because we are still in our bed- 
rooms ; but in the midst of our own private domain, 
our own out-creations, our personal universe. 

The human soul, as said before, is a divine kaleides- 
cope, which forever changes, yet never exhausts its ca- 



256 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

pacity, either for change, or for appreciation for the bliss 
thence derived, or of trouble encountered. So we have 
no need of legs in the spirit- world, because our move- 
ments are not with reference to space — we have done 
with roads and distances there ; but our changes are of 
state or condition. Illustration : Anna is a beautiful 
girl — pious, good, pure, excellent ; sits beside her lover, 
John — a polished scoundrel in every sense. One bullet 
kills both, instantly. They die on the spot. Both' 
awake in the other life — in the same room, yet are a 
million miles apart, because their respective mental 
states determine their relation to each other t here, albeit 
other things determine it here. 

They may never not only not meet again, but never 
know aught of eacl^other, so vast is the real distance 
(condition) between the twain. The spiritual world of 
the one will abound with forms of beauty, use, goodness : 
that of the other will abound with toads, swamps, 
snakes, bugs and unseemly things. Why ? — because 
each is surrounded with his or her personal out-crea- 
tions. Each communicating back to earth, will tell 
what each beholds ; both will be true, yet both fail to 
give even the ghost of a real notion about the absolute 
supernal worlds Whatever we are, we see ; whatever 
we want, is there before us — w# have. Thus we can 
ascend in goodness, or sink away to the very depths of 
hell— both our own, however. * * * * * And all these 
things came to me there, as I loated on a wave of the 
sea of knowledge. 

Self-induced psycho-vision often passes as the product 
of spirits. The line is yet to be drawn between the 
seeming and the real in this respect. Spirits first are 
monads — spiritual (psychal) atoms — God-existent from 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 257 

all past eternity : Secondly, they are awakened beings, 
self-existent to all future states— not times merely : 
Thirdly, at physical birth they, as monads, cease to be ; 

1 at physical death a change as complete and great as the 
last occurs. And now they have passed through, and 
across three eternities ; that of monads, matter, and 
spirit ; and fourthly, they remain in no condition above 
a century (which accounts for the fact that no well- 
authenticated instance of intercourse with a spirit over 
a century dead, has yet been recorded) ; lastly, they 
ever pass onward, and each condition differs from the 
last, as tloes sleep from wakefulness. There are mil- 
lions of these changes. It takes about a century to 
graduate and gravitate from one condition to another. 
When we pass from this world, we take some things 
with us which we are obliged to unlearn there. Thus, 
some want drink, others rest, fruit, land, houses, money, 
and so forth ; some want children and desire to cohabit 
as on earth. All have just what they want ; only that 
the children begotten there, are mere phasmas— just as 
by a powerful effort we can create a beautiful puppy 
dog, and hold it as an ideal before our eyes while here. 
A crazy man's golden crown and throne, although to 

| us nothing but straw and bits of stone, are to him gold 
and diamonds ; and flash forth the richest scintillations 

>of the most precious jewels. It is a state of the mind. 

' Millions of crazy people inhabit both worlds ; whence 
it follows that insanity is a disease of the mind, as well 
as a result of organic and chemical change and dis- 
turbance in the body. 

It is hard to describe spiritual things in material 
language. Amongst all the flood of " Spiritual litera- 
ture," I know of no single work that gives the faintest 



258 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

idea of spiritual actualities.* All that passes current, 
as such, is far more ideal and material than spiritual, 
and are referable, as to their origin, to excited ideality, 
and other peculiar mental states, rather than to the 
Supernal world. Amidst the three million speeches a 
year, delivered under professed spirit influence, it is my 
deliberate conviction, that not over ten in one thousand 
has its source in the pure Soul-realm, but many origin- 
ate in the Middle-states of the spiritual world ; very 
many of the vivid and beautiful descriptions of spirit 
life, scenery and so forth, which so please us to hear, are 
transcripts from the individuals' inner-self, or rather of 
the out-creations thereof. Of course, these are true 
to the individual, but to no one else : let it be once 
remembered that the man is as immortal in the past, as 
he is now, and wilf be ; and that during that state (as 
Monad or Pha-soul) of pre-carnate being, he had an expe- 
rience as real to him then, as his present is to him now ; 
and we shall no longer marvel at genius, or at the stu- 
pendous powers of the human mind. During the sub- 
lime experiences of my soul, which I am endeavor- 
ing to recount, I became thoroughly satisfied, not as 
the medium, not from spiritual teaching, but from soul- 
observation, that man, like God, had no beginning,- as / 
did matter as we know it — and that like Him, he will \ 
never positively have an end ; albeit the modes of God, 
and those of man — for at bottom, they are one, contin- 
ually change conditions. This brings us to the ques- 
tion, " What is God ?" * * * * Up there,t upon 






* If we except Swedenborg, and a fugitive lecture or two, by persons 
not necessary to be named herein. 

f I now discovered that " up" was a .condition of soul and spirit — 
and that to both, time and space did not exist. 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 259 

the beautiful ether, all was still and silent music, yet 
moving in Beauty, Order, and Form — which were out- 
creations of one Eternal Monad, self-donseious and 
awful — shone a sun of ineffable glory and majesty — the 
Omnipotent God. 

This sun shines in the heaven of spirit, just as the 
comparatively tiny and material suns illuminate the 
material universe. The spiritual does not glide into 
the material, but is from and above it, just in the sense 
that the meaning of a sentence is above the sounds or 
characters which convey it-nand in no other. The grand 
procession of material universes constantly sweeps 
- along the Eternities ; receive Light, Life and Love 
thence ; fructify ; incarnate the monad's Beauty, Con- 
sciousness, Form, Order, Law, Music, and Number, in 
human souls ; and tilery exhaustion prepares the self- 
same material universes — or rather, their bases for a 
new infiltration — of God-Od, so to speak, differing 
from the last ; and so on forever. One procession is 
one Eternity — or rather, Cycle. Thus it will be seen, 
by those who can grasp this tremendous thought, that 
all matter — the amazing system of substance, is after 
all, but a mere fleck — a mote in the sun-rays — a mere 
grain on the awful shores of the stupendous Spiritual 

J)cean ; nor does all the matter existing, bear a greater 
roportion to the spiritual, than an orange does in bulk 
3 the Rocky Mountain Chain. The material systems 
move near its centre, and the spiritual waves flow on 
all sides into the Ineffable Beyond. 

The fountain, whence they flow is God ! and this 
word " God" is a poor name. Men become " gods" in 
the great hereafter — gods for Good, Use and Order, 
or the opposite of these ; but this, of which I speak, the 



260 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

Eternal Secret, the awful, yet radiant Mystery, is as 
far beyond the Ideal Jehovah, as is the human beyond 
the analid. Let us make a chain : Matter is the first 
link : Spirit is the second — I speak of Universes now, 
remember ; Soul — that which constitutes the Human 
TmNK-principle, is the third ; well, this Over-Soul 
flows throiigh all these, as man's spirit through his 
body. Now man is conscious only partly ; he knows 
nothing just on the other side of himself, is ignorant of 
what life is, and of that august power which governs h is 
involuntary self. Well, th% Over-Soul flows out into 
the All — into the universe of Think, (I can use no 
other term,) into that of Soul, Monads, Spirit, Matter ; 
and while pervading and being imminent in All, is 
self-conscious at every point ; in the Think, the Monad, 
the Soul, the Spirit, the Matter, in every particle that is, 
or can ever be. I hold this, as the truest definition of 
the Deity yet given ; and in the radiant presence of 
such a thought, all human things must bow ; all human 
pride stand back, all human ideas pale and fade. * * 
And these things came to me, and I believe them true. 
And God is not good, but beyond it ; is not truth, but 
its foundation ; is not power, nor Life, nor Think, but 
beyond, beneath, above all these ! Spirit may be repre- 
sented as the soul of matter : Soul as the inmost of. 
Spirit ; Monad as the base of Soul ; Think, as the* 
essence of Monad ; God as the Soul of Think. HereA 
let no man smile at these uncouth expressions ; they 
stand as symbols of mighty truths. I have said that 
Monads were scintillations from God's brain : They 
are : That Matter was the proceeding from his body. 
Monads are forms of thought, and are the bubbles on 
His ever-rising tide of Soul. Hence, these monads 






DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 2 61 

are, so to speak, the givings off of his spirit. God's 
Spirit is the element, Soul ; but of this Soul, none but 
Himself knoweth. 

And as I floated there on the sea of knowledge, an 
impulse sprung up to know more ; and these questions 
were fashioned- in my soul, and that soul derived from 
out the mystery the answers appended to eacfe question : 
" Is not man forever in the human form ?" In human 
form, yes ; in human shape, no : Man was once the 
monad — a finite sun. He still is so as to himself (see 
a previous section), and the body which he uses is but 
an out-creation, as are his mental pictures ; with the 
difference that the latter are volitional and circumstan- 
tial, while the former is constitutional. The shape, — 
organic, is the very best adapted to the purposes it 
serves, and it is the effect of a force lying behind the 
personal consciousness. Its use is for the material ; it 
could have none in the spiritual world, save as the 
effect of Soul-habit, or as a means of discipline in the 
lesser or " lower " departments or conditions thereof. 
" How of dead infants ?" Infants have spiritual bodies, 
and retain them till discipline places them beyond the 
necessity. In all cases, the bodily forms are attach- 
ments to the human, so long as the human is in the 
sphere of discipline, — hence moves within the possibili- 
ties of Good and Evil. When they leave this latter, 
and merge into the sphere of Uses, the external of the 
soul corresponds to its new state. A soul is imma- 
terial, as of the nature of Think, — hence needs no 
stomach to digest food, lungs to breathe air, legs for 
locomotion, and so forth ; for all these are principles of 
the soul, with mere out-created organs. "When it needs 



262 DEALINGS WITH THE BEAD. 

the organs no longer, it dispenses therewith, but the 
principles underlying them still remain, 

" Unhurt amid the rush of warring elements, 
The wreck of matter, and the crush of worlds. " 

A man sits in his study, and thinks of his father's 
.house, many, many miles away. He sees it ; — well, 
brook, barn, trees, garden, flowers, — all, all just as 
they really exist. Now, the man's body, being a mere 
thing of circumstance, still remains in the study, but the 
man himself is gone ; his body and spirit are in the 
room, but himself is at the old homestead. Space, time, 
and flight are not to the soul, — only to forms and 
things of coarser nature and lesser majesty. 

The soul thinks " I am there," and — there it is. 
Certain persons, gifted, can see things spiritual ; all 
persons can at times, and frequently are sensible of the 
presence of others, whose bodies are far away. They 
are made sensible of it by soul-contact. It is possible 
for a man to project an image of himself to any dis- 
tance, which image shall be mistaken for himself. 
These images, being such, of course, cani^ot speak when 
questioned by whoever sees them. Whoever can pic- a 
ture the exact simulacrum of himself, can mill thi^ 
figure whither soever he may choose, and then persons 
who behold this declare they have seen his " spectre," \ 
" phantom," " ghost," " wraith," or " double." Again, 1 
the man of strong will and pure desires may quit the 
body spiritually, actually, and be perceptible to others 
at a distance ; may be spoken to, hold conversations, 
and move material objects, when his body lies scores of 
leagues away. 

" Are there demons ?" Yes, two kinds : forms of 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 263 

fear, corresponding to a man's bad moral state, — pro- 
jected out-creations from the wicked self. Such are 
the fiends, snakes, toads, devils and horrid monsters 
seen by the yictim of delirium tremens. Of the same 
order, but beautiful, instead of the reverse, are the 
angels, ghillim, houris, fairy-forms, peris and rsaiads, 
seen by the rapt enthusiasts of all ages and climes, but 
especially of the Orient, when inspired by opium, love, 
and religion ; out-creations of their inmost souls, — sub- 
jective images objectified. This species of out-projec- 
tion pertains to all persons, while under the discipline 
of good and evil, virtue and vice, and all other material 
conditions and accidents. " What do you mean by 
virtue and vice, as material incidents ? " I mean that 
good and evil are but conditions environing man, while 
under the sway of his inevitable discipline. 



There is such a thing as the spirit of Community. A 
mob is a fearful thing, a dreadful power, and it developes 
a ferocity which does not inhere in any one of the multi- 
tude composing it — a material energy of awful force. 
A reasoner can take aside, one by one, an entire 
audience, and convince them thus of the justice of the 
cause he advocates ; but, let them be combined, and he 
shall not be able to convince the general sense, nor suc- 
ceed in evoking aught but derisive sneers at his " imbe- 
cility." Or conversely : he may not be able to convince 
the people, taken singly, yet } let him pour out his soul 
before them, congregated, and he shall sway them as the 
tempest sways the forest — material energy in both cases. 
Again : vice is frequently not considered in the act 
itself, but in the how society views it. Thus, adultery, 



264 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

in France, is laughed at as " the mere affair of a sofa ;" 
in England, its penalty is a black eye or so, and half a 
crown a week ; in the Orient, it is a matter of course ; 
in the Southern States, it is a legal and very peculiar 
institution ; and in New England it is a fearful crime ; 
and yet is, notwithstanding, a very fashionable vice, in 
spite of bolts and bars ; one, too, that has lately stained 
not a few preachers of the gospel. Adultery, so far as 
individuals are concerned, is, except in rare instances, 
a thing of terrible moment ; but, alas ! the very ones 
who make the most noise about it, denounce it the 
loudest and prosecute the sinners most grievously, are 
the very ones who are particularly weak in that direc- 
iion themselves. Many a judge has left the bench, 
wherefrom he had just sentenced some weak one to long 
years of penal servitude, to revel in a wanton's arms ! 
Individuals are governed by personal laws and in- 
fluences ; but society, community, the mob, develop© an 
"opinion" or "sentiment," before which all chari- 
table, just, or personal considerations vanish and are 
forgotten. Many a jury, if individual preferences 
were allowed scope, would free the culprit whom the 
"twelve" consign to dungeon or the gibbet. This is 
material force ! Again : A fellow hires himself out as 
a soldier, to commit homicide as often as he can ; — goes 
out ; does so ; comes back, after making a dozen or 
two, — perhaps a hundred orphans ;— settles down in 
life, beneath his " laurels," lives to a good old age, dies, 
and goes to— hell, — I think, with ne'er a pang or qualm 
of conscience. Why ? Because the community smiles 
on him and sustains, as a mass, the very thing — man- 
killing — that every one of them, taken singly, condemns 
and must ever disapprove. 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 265 

This personal feeling is Common Sense. The other 
is Public Opinion. The last is always wrong ; the 
other is always right. The individual is generally just, 
the community very seldom. Public opinion is, there- 
fore, a mere physical power ; and as such, eternally 
changes. Common sense, on the contrary, ever and 
always accretes and intensifies, spreads and grows 
stronger as the years and people pass away; the one is 
accidental and material ; the other, personal, constitu- 
tional, and real. Now take a couple of other men, con- 
stituted precisely as was our soldier : let them, each for 
himself, commit a genteel murder ; one gets caught at 
it and is strung up and choked to death in a period of 
time, varying from four to twenty minutes ; choked till 
his eyes bulge out, his tongue lolls thick and swollen 
from his mouth — by a fellow who gets paid for the job. 
Society says this is right as Society ; but take every 
one that composes it aside, and let him look on that 
blue-black throat, at those bulging eye-balls, contorted 
features, and ghastly carrion ; ten thousand to one, 
that every man of them will denounce this legal 
choking affair as a damnable piece of buisness, totally 
unworthy of a savage, much less civilized (?) men and 
women. 

Here you see the thing is material — is the monstrous 
out-creation of the social body, and not at all related 
to man, as an individual. How happens this out-crea- 
tion of the body-politic to be so terrible ? just go back 
a few pages and you will see that "the out-creation 
always corresponds to the condition of the being 
whence it emanates." The great mass is barbarous to- 
day ; and civilization, much less Spiritualization, is the 
exception to the general rule and order. Bye-and-bye 
12 



266 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

civilization will be the rule, and then we shall have a 
better "Public Opinion;" therefore, less hanging, and 
things of that soft. Let us work for it. 

Turn we now to the fellow that earned his ten dollars 
by performing the choking operation — the nice young 
gentleman who so gaily looped the rope and polled the 
neat little spring which sent a soul to God on a yard 
of twisted hemp. How does he feel when the job is 
over? Why, not at all uneasy. The guilt of doing 
this wicked thing is not Ms, he feels — albeit, he* and I 
disagree on this point. It is not his, and so he " don't 
care a fig." That's it exactly. He, like the choked- 
to-death, whose eyes bulge out, who bleeds at the ears, 
whose tongue is so largely swollen that it won't stay in 
his blood-slavered mouth — he, too, I say, has sent a soul 
prematurely cross-lots home ; but feeleth he remorse ? 
No more than a good dram of sixpenny damnation will 
drown — but not forever ! Oh, no ! — for just as sure as 
God reigns, he must come up to the bar for sentence, 
and must expiate his error somewhere, at some time. 

The judge, the jury, the legislators — all, just as the 
executioner, feel that they are clear of even this judicial 
murder, and at last, we trace the responsibility home to 
a formless, brainless monster, without a body, yet with 
a great black soul, whose name is, "Public Opinion." 
Presently, you and I, sir and madam, will beget a better 
one — God speed the day ! 

Now for the other murderer. He has too much tact 
and finesse to be caught, caged, and strung up. Chem- 
istry can't fasten the deed on him, nor can skilful detec- 
tives trip him up ; and so he goes along, happy as a 
lark in the day-time I But somehow or other his dreams 
are devilishly unpleasant! Why? — Because in the 



DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 267 

silence of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, 
a spirit passes before his face, bearing a very astonishing 
resemblance to a former acquaintance of his, now, alas ! 
deceased ; and, although he is above the weakness 
of believing in " spirits," yet he often catches himself ex- 
claiming, " By God, I believe it's his ghost 1"— an out- 
creation of his foul within. From this day forward, the 
invisible fangs of Public Opinion, go deeper and deeper 
into his soul — a moral augur, sinking an artesian shaft 
into his very centre — until, at last, the waters are 
reached, and burst forth in one full, deep stream of 
agony — Remorse. The executed suffered about ten 
deaths, fh expiation of the one life he took ; but this 
wretch, whose crime is not known, suffers a dozen deaths 
a day. 

Now, in a community where man-slaying don't count 
much against a citizen, this fellow would not have 
suffered one whit more than did the soldier, or Jack 
Ketch. * * * * I said that there were two kinds 
of demons. Having described one, we will glance 
rapidly at the other ; the process is simple enough. A 
man's elevation on the scale depends upon himself — if 
he loves disorder more than its opposite, hatred than 
love, the deformed than the lovely — why, the man, in 
so far forth as he departs from rectitude of his own 
purpose and will, just so far does he demonize himself. 
And as there is no limit to advancement or descension, 
so he may become guileful to an immense degree — be a 
demon. 

N There are myriads of such within the compass, and 
on the confines of the Material Realms, but none beyond 
them in the Divine City of Pure Spirit. But ivithin 
those limits exists a Badness, so awful, so vast, that the 



268 DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD. 

soul shrinks before the terrible reality. These beings 
cannot injure our souls, save by the voluntary co-opera- 
tion of our own wills and loves. 

I content myself with this brief outline now, promising 
to take up the subject hereafter. In this book I have 
touched only a few of the lesser truths of the Universe, 
and shall go deeper next time. 

All these things came to me as I floated on the air. 
These practical lessons I received from Thotmor and 
his Cynthia, and from my own spontaneous reachings 
forth. Presently Thotmor looked lovingly upon the 
maiden at his side, and then upon myself. She turned 
to me, and said, "This lesson will do for the present. 
Eeturn once more to earth." * * * * Again, a 
deep sense of drowsiness fell upon me, and seemingly, 
I slept. When next I woke, I was beneath the tree, 
and the golden sun was setting. 

This was not all I learned ; but my present task is 
finished. Patience, my reader ! Since these truths were 
written I have received a message from beyond the sea. 
I am going to cross it. I shall speedily return and 
relate to you and all my brethren the things I there^ 
have seen. Till then, Adieu ! 



CIRCULAR NOTICE. 



:f> ositivb meidioinb . 
I take this method of informing my numerous friends and 
the public that I am still manufacturing my great curatives, 
but during the past eight years have, by the aid of the high- 
est procurable chemical assistance, been enabled to bring 
them to a state of perfection that leaves nothing to be de- 
sired in that direction. Now, as in years past, I devote 
myself to one speciality, viz. : the treatment of nervous and 
scrofulous diseases. In addition to my own system, that of 
Dr. P. B. Randolph has been transferred to me by special 
deed, and the public well know that amongst the thousands 
of cases of an especial nature treated by him, not two per 
cent, out of the entire number but were perfectly cured. The 
combined system is the result of twenty years of pro- 
found study. The diseases I treat are those whose ravages 
are indeed fearful, but which are seldom understood, and 
still more seldom cured by ordinary medical practitioners. 
My system and my remedies are known only to myself, 
and, it is needless to state, have, for the last ten years, 
stood alone and unequalled, and are alike adapted to the 
wants of either sex. In accordance with my system of Posi- 
tive Medicine, in every case I furnish just what Nature, the 
only great Physician, needs, in order to be enabled to effect a 
cure. There is no guess-work at all about the matter, but I 
proceed with geometrical precision to a certain and foreseen 
result, and that too, not by Herb teas, or deleterious com- 
pounds of any sort, but by means of an Entirely New Class 
of curative agents. Every one of these compounds is ele- 
gant in appearance, delicious to the taste, steady and uniform 
in its effects, and absolutely Positive in curative results, a 
desideratum never before attained in the history of medicine. 
For instance : Chemical research has enabled us to bring to 
light a hitherto supposed unattainable combination of proxi- 
mate principles, with certain ultimate elements. The First 
of which is named 



PHYMYLLE. 

It is the only remedy extant for Spermatorrhea or Seminal 
losses ; is the most efficient agent yet discovered in cases of 
Atony and morbidity of the vital apparatus in either sex. 
In Leucorrhea, it stands alone. It is the agent for the cure, 
not only of the Habit, but of the disastrous effects of igno- 
rance, even where insanity has resulted ; because it supplies 
that whereof the body has been drained, and therefore is 
indicated in all affections of the Brain, Nervous System and 
Heart. 

There are those who prefer to have written formulas to 
prepare their own medicines. To such I send them at $5 
per case. The Second Medicine, my 

IKON AND MANGANESE COMPOUND, 

is a certain cure for Ovarian, Uterine, Prostatic and Vaginal 
Ulcerations, as well as for Ulcers in the Stomach, Liver and 
Intestines. There can be no question of the great medicinal 
value of the ferro-manganic preparations. This syrup is used 
with success in anaemic cases, scrofulous, syphilitic, and can- 
cerous affections. Each fluid ounce of the syrup contains 
fifty grains of the mixed Iodides. Dose, from 10 drops to a 
fluid drachm. 

The diseases herein named, which I treat, exist, and there- 
fore ought to be cured. It is my business to do this, and 
this is my only apology for advertising in this manner. 
Knowing my power over them, I feel religiously impelled to 
use it for the benefit of those who need my skill. 

The two medicines, used conjointly with the third, is a 
certain and positive cure for Scrofula, Fits, Tape-Worm, 
Epilepsy, Consumption, Dropsy, Dyspepsia, Liver Disease, 
Gravel, Canker, Rheumatism, Insanity, Ulcers, Tumors, Salt 
Rheum, Spermatorrhea or Seminal Weakness, and the various 
affections of the Stomach, Brain, Lungs and Heart, Piles and 
Fistula, and all diseases of the blood, all of which morbid 
conditions can only be removed by vacating the body and 



blood of all deleterious substances and humors, and by sup- 
plying the elements whereof it stands in need. That physi- 
cian is a fool who claims or expects to cure two men of oppo- 
site temperament of the same disease, with one medecine. It 
cannot be done, and never will be, else Science is at fault ; 
which cannot be the case, seeing that she absolutely demon- 
strates that each of the above diseases indicates the absence 
from the body of one, two r and, in certain cases, no less 
than seven of the prime elements of the body. My remedies 
supply these elements of the system, and thus effect the cure. 
Remedy No. 3 is the 

INVIGORANT. 

Its name suggests its use and office, either alone or in com- 
bination with the others. It will, to quote the language of a 
patient, restored by its use, " Put life in hoary age, and fire in 
the ^eins of ice !" not by mere stimulations, but by perma- 
nent in vigoration. Persons who have become exhausted by 
folly, study, over-working of the brain, sedentary habits and 
excess, have herein their only remedy. No. 4, 

THE EPILEPSY AND PITS CURE, 

certain, positive and invaluable. No. 5, 

POWDERS, 

for the cure of diseases of either sex, arising from colds and 
derangements of the natural system. They are prepared as 
ordered only, owing to the high cost of their materials. 
They are sent in courses at six, ten, twenty and twenty-five 
dollars — sufficient for one case — except desperate ones, and 
at these prices are the cheapest medicines in the world ; for 
they do their work, and do it thoroughly and well. In con- 
nection with this subject, allow me to state that these reme- 
dies are sure and certain ; they are not mere catch-pennies — 
are sold at high prices because they cost high to manufac- 
ture. One ingredient alone, in numbers one and three, 
is imported at the cost of 80 cents a drachm. In this con- 



nection also, let me state that all persons, sick or well, sho, 
read my pamphlet called : 

"LOVE, A PHYSICAL SUBSTANCE;' 

A NEW AND STARTLING THEORY. 

Diseases arising from perverted, inverted, retroverte 
frozen and fevered love and passion, and how to cure the 
Price 25 cents. The work will be re-written, improved a 
enlarged every six months. 

Address, M. J. Randolph, Utica, New York. 






IMPORTANT PUBLICATIONS. 

11 It Isn't All Right." A scorching review of Dr. A. 
Child's new theory that " Whatever is, is Right" — muid 
robbery, rape, war, falsehood, and all the modern aborair 
tions included. The pamphlet rips the horrible fabric all 
shreds. Price, 15 cents. 

The Unveiling of Modern Spiritualism. By the Cc-.. 
verted Medium. No man ever had a more thrilling and t 
rific experience of certain phases of Spiritualism than t 
author of this pamphlet. It reveals the secret workings 
the modern theurgy fuller and better than any work extai 
besides a thorough refutation of the assertion that some m 
are not immortal. Price, 25 cents. 

In preparation : Hashish ; Its Uses and Abuses. Beii 
the experience of three souls during their illumination 1 
means of this terrible drug. The thrilling revelations of tl 
pamphlet exceed anything of the kind ever written. It 
tails the curious effects of Hashish — its clairvoyance pow( i 
and what several souls learned while under its wierd ai 
awful influence — Haw a soul lives a thousand years in a m 
ment of time — Where the Hashish world is. It will co 
tain the only solution of this mystery ever attempted — ar 
the true one. Sold to subscribers at 50 cents a copy. A 
limited number only will be printed. Issued Sept. 1, 18G 
Address as above. 



MBBlBKg 






52k 






If vti lf l f a 



MQHH 

msgBM 







^*-S 



ran 



^pasi 



